


mmWm' 







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THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 



Colonel Daniel Boone 



By CECIL B. HARTLEY 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION 

By G. mercer ADAM % 



ILLUSTRATEP 



THE PERKINS BOOK COMPANY, 
p- 296 Broadway, New York. 






THE Library of 




CONoPESS, 




Two Cooies Receivftc' 




APR 10 1903 




Copyright Entry 




.^^.U..2>0-i^o'> 


' 


CLASS CU XXc. No 




s c -^ / ^ 




COPY B. 





Copyright, 1902, 
By E. a. BRAINERD, 



•-• •-« 



.». •• • •• ' 



• z * 



PREFACE. 



The subject of tlie "following biography, tte 
celebrated Colonel Daniel Boone, is one of 
tlie most remarkable men wbicli this country has 
produced. His character is marked with origi- 
nality, and his actions were important and influ- 
ential in one of the most interesting periods of 
our history — ^that of the early settlement of 
Kentucky. Boone is generally acknowledged as 
the founder of that State. His having explored 
it alone to a considerable extent ; his leading 
the earliest bands of settlers; his founding 
Boonesborough, the nucleus of the future State ; 
his having defended this and other stations suc- 
cessfully against the attacks of the Indians ; and 
the prominent part which he took in military 

affairs at this period of distress and peril, cer- 
iii 



iv ^ PREFACE. 

tainly render his claims to the distinguished 
honor of founding Kentucky very strong. 

But Boone, personally, reaped very little 
benefit from his patriotic and disinterested ex- 
ertions. The lands which he had first cultivated 
and defended, were taken from him by the 
chicanery of the law ; other lands granted to 
him by the Spanish government were lost by his 
inattention to legal forms ; and in his old age he 
was without an acre of land which he could 
call his o^vn. A few years before his death a 
small tract, such as any other settler in Missouri 
was entitled to, was granted him by Congress. 
But he has left to his numerous posterity a 
nobler inheritance — that of an imperishable 
fame in the annals of his country ! 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTEE I. 

PAGE 

The family of Daniel Boone — His grandfather emigrates 
to America, and settles in Bucks County, Pennsylvania 
— Family of Daniel Boone's father — Account of Exeter, 
the birthplace of Boone — Birth of Daniel Boone — Reli- 
gion of his family — Boone's boyhood — Goes to School — 
Anecdote — Summary termination of his schooling 1 

CHAPTER n. 

Removal of Boone's father and family to North Carolina 
— Location on the Yadkin River — Character of the 
country and the people — Byron's description of the back- 
woodsman — Daniel Boone marries Rebecca Bryan — His 
farmer life in North Carolina — State of the country — 
Political troubles foreshadowed — Illegal fees and taxes 
— Probable effect of this state of things on Boone's mind 
— Signs of movement 12 

CHAPTER Hi. 

The Seven Years' War — Cherokee war — Period of Boone's 
first long excursion to the West — Extract from 
Wheeler's History of Tennessee — Indian accounts of the 
western country — Indian traders — Their reports — West- 
ern travelers — Doherty — Adair — Proceedings of the 
traders — Hunters — Scotch traders — Hunters accompany 
the traders to the West— Their reports concerning the 
country — Other adventurers — Dr. Walker's expedition 
— Settlements in Southwestern Virginia — Indian hostili- 
V 



Yl CONTENTS. 

PAOB 

ties — Pendleton purchase — Dr. Walker's second expedi- 
tion — Hunting company of Walker and others — Boone 
travels with them — Curious monument left by him 18 

CHAPTER IV. 

Political and social condition of North Carolina — Taxes — 
Lawsuits — Ostentation and extravagance of foreigners 
and government officers — Oppression of the people — 
Murmurs — Open resistance — The Regulators — Willing- 
ness of Daniel Boone and others to migrate, and their 
reasons — John Finley's expedition to the West — His re- 
port to Boone — He determines to join Finley in his next 
hunting tour — New company formed, with Boone for 
leader — Preparations for starting — The party sets out — 
Travels for a month through the wilderness — First sight 
of Kentucky — Forming a camp — Hunting buffaloes and 
other game — Capture of Boone and Stuart by the Indians 
— Prudent dissimulation — Escape from the Indians — 
Return to the old camp — Their companions lost — Boone 
and Stuart renew their hunting S3 

CHAPTER V. 

Arrival of Squire Boone and a companion at the camp of 
Daniel Boone — Joyful meeting — Uews from home, and 
hunting resumed — Daniel Boone and Stuart surprised by 
the Indians — Stuart killed — Escape of Boone, and his 
return to camp — Squire Boone's companion lost in the 
woods — Residence of Daniel Boone and Squire Boone 
in the wilderness — Squire returns to North Carolina, 
obtains a fresh supply of ammunition, and again rejoins 
his brother at the old camp — Daniel Boone's own ac- 
count of this remarkable period of his life — His return 
to North Carolina — His determination to settle in Ken- 
tucky — Other Western adventurers — The Long hunters 
— Washington in Kentucky — Bullitt's party — Floyd's 
party — Thompson's survey — First settlement of Ten- 
nessee 49 



CONTENTS. Vii 

CHAPTER VI. 

^ PAOK 

Daniel Boone remains two years in North Carolina after 
his return from the West— He prepares to emigrate to 
Kentucky — Character of the early settlers to Kentucky 
— The first class, hunters— The second class, small 
farmers — The third class, men of wealth and govern- 
ment officers 65 

CHAPTER VII. 

Daniel Boone sets out for Kentucky with his family and 
his brother Squire Boone — Is joined by five families 
and forty men at Powell's Valley— The party is attacked 
by Indians and Daniel Boone's oldest son is killed — 
The party returns to the settlements on Clinch River — 
Boone, at the request of Governor Dunmore, goes to 
the West and conducts a party of Surveyors to Virginia 
— Boone receives the command of three garrisons and 
the commission of captain — He takes a part in the 
Dunmore war — Battle of Point Pleasant and termina- 
tion of the war 76 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The militia discharged — Captain Boone returns to his 
family — Henderson's company — Various companies of 
emigrants to Kentucky — Bounty lands — Harrod's party 
builds the first log-cabin erected in Kentucky, and 
founds Harrodsburg — Proceedings of Henderson's com- 
pany — Agency of Captain Boone — He leads a company 
to open a road to Kentucky River — Conflicts with the 
Indians — Captain Boone founds Boonesborough — His 
own account of this expedition — His letter to Hender- 
son — Account of Colonel Henderson and the Transyl- 
vania Company — Failure of the scheme — Probability of 
Boone having been several years in the service of Hen- 
derson 87 

CHAPTER IX. 

Description of the Old Fort at Boonesborough — Usual 



viii CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

methods of fortifications against the Indians — Arrival 
of more settlers at Boonesborough — Captain Boone re- 
turns to the Clinch River to bring out his family — He 
enlists new emigrants and starts for Kentucky— Rein- 
forced by a large party at Powell's Valley — Arrival at 
Boonesborough — Arrival of many new settlers at 
Boonesborough and Harrod's settlement — Arrival of 
Kenton, Floyd, the McAfees, and other distinguished 
persons — Arrival of Colonel Richard Callaway 99 

CHAPTER X. 
Disturbed state of the country in 1775 — Breaking out of 
the Revolutionary war — Exposed situation of the Ken- 
tucky settlements— Hostility of the Indians excited by 
the British — First political convention in the West — 
Capture of Boone's daughter and the daughters of Col- 
onel Callaway by the Indians — Their rescue by a party 
led by Boone and Callaway — Increased caution of the 
colonists at Boonesborough — Alarm and desertion of the 
Colonies in the West by land speculators and other 
adventurers — A reinforcement of forty-five men from 
North Carolina arrive at Boonesborough — Indian attack 
on Boonesborough in April — Another attack in July — 
Attack on Logan's Fort, and siege — Attack on Harrods- 
burg 106 

CHAPTER XI. 
Arrival of George Rogers Clark in Kentucky — Anecdote of 
his conversation -v^-ith Ray — Clark and Jones chosen as 
delegates for the Colonies to the Virginia Legislature 
— Clark's important services in obtaining a political 
organization for Kentucky, and an abundant supply of 
gunpowder from the government of Virginia — Great 
labor and diflficulty in bringing the powder to Harrods- 
town — Clark's expedition against Kaskaskias — Surprise 
and capture of their fort — Perilous and difficult march 
to Vincennes — Surprise and capture of that place — Ex- 
tension of the Virginian settlements — Erection of Fort 
Jefferson 116 



CONTENTa ix 

CHAPTER Xn. 

PAOE 

Boarcity of salt at Boonesborough — Boone goes to Blue 
Licks to make salt, and is captured by the Indians — 
Taken to Chillicothe — Affects contentment, and deceives 
the Indians— Taken to Detroit— Kindness of the British 
officers to him — Returns to Chillicothe — Adopted into 
an Indian family — Ceremonies of adoption — Boone sees 
a large force of Indians destined to attack Boones- 
borough — Escapes, and gives the alarm, and strength- 
ens the fortifications at Boonesborough — News of delay 
by the Indians on account of Boone's escape — Boone 
goes on an expedition to the Scioto — Has a fight with 
a party of Indians — Returns to Boonesborough, which 
is immediately besieged by Captain Duquesne with five 
hundred Indians — Summons to surrender — Time gained 
— Attack commenced — Brave defense — Mines and coun- 
termines — Siege raised — Boone brings his family once 
more back to Boonesborough, and resumes farming. ... 129 

CHAPTER Xin. 

Captain Boone tried by court-martial — Honorably ac- 
quitted and promoted — Loses a large sum of money — 
His losses by lawsuits and disputes about land — Defeat 
of Colonel Rogers's party — Colonel Bowman's expedi- 
tion to Chillicothe — Arrival near the town — Colonel 
Logan attacks the town — Ordered by Colonel Bowman 
to retreat — Failure of the expedition — Consequences to 
Bowman and to Logan 144 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Invasion of Kentucky by Captain Byrd's party — He cap- 
tures the garrisons at Ruddle's Station and Martin's 
Fort — Colonel Clark's invasion of the Indian country — 
He ravages the Indian towns — Adventure of Alex- 
ander McConnell— Skirmish at Pickaway— Result of the 
expedition — Boone goes to the Blue Licks with his 
brother — Attacked by the Indians — Boone's brother 



X CONTENTS. 

PAOB 

killed— Boone promoted to the rank of Lieutenant- 
Colonel — Clark's galley— Squire Boone's Station re- 
moved to Bear's Creek— Attack by the Indians— Col- 
onel Floyd's defeat— Affair of the McAfees— Attack on 
McAfee's Station repelled— Fort Jefferson evacuated— 
Attack on Montgomery Station— Rescue by General 
Logan 156 

CHAPTER XV. 

News of Cornwallis's surrender—Its effects— Captain 
Estill's defeat — Grand army of Indians raised for the 
conquest of Kentucky' — Simon Girty's speech — Attack 
on Hoy's Station — Investment of Bryant's Station — 
Expedient of the besieged to obtain water — Grand 
attack on the fort — Repulse — Regular siege commenced 
— Messengers sent to Lexington — Reinforcements ob- 
tained — Arrival near the fort — Ambushed and attacked 
— They enter the fort — Narrow escape of Girty — He pro- 
poses a capitulation — Parley — Reynolds' answer to 
Girty — The siege raised — Retreat of the Indians 176 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Arrival of reinforcements at Bryant's Station — Colonel 
Daniel Boone, his son and brother among them — Col- 
onels Trigg, Todd, and others— Consultation — Apprehen- 
sions of Boone and others — Arrival at the Blue Licks 
— Rash conduct of Major McGary — Battle of Blue Licks 
— Israel Boone, Colonels Todd and Trigg, and Majors 
Harland and McBride killed — Retreat of the whites — 
Colonel Boone nearly surrounded by Indians — Bravery 
of Netherland — Noble conduct of Reynolds — The fugi- 
tives meet Colonel Logan with his party — Return to 
the field of battle — Logan returns to Bryant's Station. . 197 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The Indians return home from the Blue Licks — They 
attack the settlements in Jefferson County — Affair at 
Simpson's Creek— General Clark's expedition to the 



CONTENTS. xi 

PAGE 

Indian country — Colonel Boone joins it — Its effect — 
Attack of the Indians on the Crab Orchard settlement 
— Rumor of intended invasion by the Cherokees — Diffi- 
culties about the treaty with Great Britain— Hostilities 
of the Indians generally stimulated by renegade whites 
— Simon Girty — Causes of his hatred of the whites — 
Girty insulted by General Lewis— Joins the Indians at 
the battle of Point Pleasant — Story of his rescuing 
Simon Kenton — Crawford's expedition, and the Burn- 
ing of Crawford — Close of Girty 's career 213 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Season of repose — Colonel Boone buys land — Builds a 
log-house and goes to farming — Kentucky organized 
on a new basis — Colonel Boone surprised by Indians — 
Escapes — Manners and customs of the settlers — The 
autumn hunt — The house-warming 248 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Condition of the early settlers as it respects the me- 
chanic arts — Throwing the tomahawk — Athletic sports 
— Dancing — Shooting at marks — Scarcity of Iron — Cos- 
tume — Dwellings — Furniture — Employments — The 
women — Their character — Diet — Indian corn 266 

CHAPTER XX. 

Indian hostilities resumed — Expedition of Davis, Caffre 
and McClure — Attack on Captain Ward's boat — Affair 
near Scaggs' Creek — Growth of Kentucky — Population 
— Trade — General Logan calls a meeting at Danville — 
Convention called — Separation from Virginia proposed 
— Virginia consents — Kentucky admitted as an inde- 
pendent State of the Union — Indian hostilities — Expe- 
dition and death of Colonel Christian— Expedition of 
General Clark — Expedition of General Logan — Success 
of Captain Hardin — Defeat of Hargrove — Exploits of 
Simon Kenton — Affairs at the Elkhorn settlements — 
Treaty — Harman's expedition 293 



Xii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXL 

PAOS 

Colonel Boone meets with the loss of all his land in Ken- 
tucky, and emigrates to Virginia — Resides on the Ken- 
hawha, near Point Pleasant — Emigrates to Missouri — 
Is appointed commandant of a district — Mr. Audubon's 
narrative of a night passed with Boone 327 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Colonel Boone receives a large grant of land from the 
Spanish Government of Upper Louisiana — He loses it — 
Sketch of the history of Missouri — Colonel Boone's 
hunting— He pays his debts by the sale of furs— Taken 
sick in his hunting camp — Colonel Boone applies to 
Congress to recover his land — The Legislature of Ken- 
tucky supports his claim— Death of Mrs. Boone— 
Results of the application to Congress— Occupations of 
his declining years — Mr. Harding paints his portrait — 340 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Last illness, and death of Colonel Boone— His funeral- 
Account of his family — His remains and those of his 
wife removed from Missouri, and reinterred in the new 
cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky — Character of Colonel 
Boone , 352 

Colonel Boone's Autobiography 357 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



The story of pioneer life in the early wilds of Ken- 
tucky and " the Winning of the West " — to use Presi- 
dent Roosevelt's apt title-phrase — is exciting and full 
of interest. One of its first white discoverers was the 
hunter, John Finley, who, in 1767, with some compan- 
ions, crossed the Alleghanies and entered the hitherto 
little known region beyond. Of this early pioneer. 
Colonel Daniel Boone, then residing at Yadkin, S. C, 
interestingly heard, and in 1769 he and six comrade 
woodsmen set out across the mountains by way of 
Cumberland Gap to explore for themselves the Eastern 
Kentucky district, which in early days was known to 
the outer world by the now almost forgotten designa- 
tion of the colony of Transylvania. Previous to this 
time the explorers in the region had been few ; and 
even the Indian inhabitants had departed from it, to be 
afterwards harried by the troops of Lord Dunmore in 
the Ohio Valley in the Western border war of the 
Revolution. 

Boone's progenitors had emigrated from Devon, Eng- 
land, and settled in Pennsylvania, where some of them 
joined the Quakers, while Boone's father, in 1748, re- 
moved to South Carolina and settled on the Yadkin at 
Holman's Ford. It was there that Daniel Boone set 
forth, as above narrated, and, though twice captured 
by Indians, he escaped and returned to his home in 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 

1771, only, however, to set out again for Kentucky two 
years later, and this time with his family and the 
families of six other emigrants. 

In Kentucky, Boone and his little colony built a fort 
on the left bank of the Kentucky River, at a place they 
called Boonesborough, and here they lived an exciting, 
adventurous life, in constant danger from lurking In- 
dians, who once more made Boone captive, with some 
of his people ; while two of his daughters were surprised 
canoeing on the river, though immediately rescued. 
Boone and his comrades were conveyed by the In- 
dians to Detroit, where all were ransomed save Boone 
himself, who was taken to the tribal seat, Chillicothe, 
and there adopted into the family of a Shawnee chief. 
Though closely watched by his captors, Boone, on 
learning that the tribe contemplated a raid on his own 
settlement, managed to escape, and after a journey of 
160 miles turned up, to the surprise of all, in time to 
defend his family and people in the fort from an at- 
tacking party of 450 Indians and some Frenchmen, 
who assailed their stronghold for over twelve days, but 
were finally beaten off with great loss. This deter- 
mined assault on the fort of Boonesborough is described 
as " one of the most heroic of those bloody struggles 
between civilization and barbarism which have ren- 
dered the plains of Kentucky memorable." The at- 
tacking Indians, as we have said, were aided by some 
French, under Captain Duquesne ; and both Indians 
and French bore British and French colors, while the 
surrender of the Fort was demanded in the name of 
His Britannic Majesty. After the raising of the siege 
and the departure of the assaulting force, the Fort was 
afterwards free from Indian attack ; while settlement 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 

in Kentucky rapidly advanced, the Revolutionary War 
driving many settlers far to the West. 

The event we have just related took place in August, 
1778, and, four years later, Boone fought a battle against 
the Indians at Blue Licks, where one of his sons was 
killed. In 1790, on the separation of Kentucky from 
Virginia, the great hunter and pioneer settled for a 
time at Point Pleasant, on the Kanawha River ; and 
from 1795 to 1804, after removing to Missouri, then a 
Spanish possession, he acted as Commandant of the 
Femme Osage district, having received a grant of 8,000 
acres for his public services. This and other land 
grants Boone unfortunately lost when the United States 
became possessed of Spanish territory ; though he was 
to some extent recouped for these losses by other land 
grants, after an appeal to the Legislature of Kentucky 
and to Congress. Boone died on his Missouri farm at 
Charette in September, 1820, and a quarter of a century 
afterwards the State of Kentucky paid his memory the 
honor of removing his remains for interment in Ken- 
tucky soil, near Frankfort. Here his grave is the ob- 
ject of veneration by the patriotic among his country- 
men, and by those especially who remember his great 
services at an early era to what is now the State of 
Kentucky. 

G. Mercee Adam. 



LIFE AND TIMES 

OF 

COLONEL DANIEL BOONE. 



CHAPTER I. 

The family of Daniel Boone — His grandfather emigrates to 
America, and settles in Bucks County, Pennsylvania — Fam- 
ily of Daniel Boone's father — Account of Exeter, the birth- 
place of Boone — Birth of Daniel Boone — Religion of his 
family — Boone's boyhood — Goes to School — Anecdote — 
Summary termination of his schooling. 

The immediate ancestors and near relations 
of the American Boone family, resided at Brad- 
wincli about eight miles from Exeter, England. 
George Boone, the grandfather of Daniel, emi- 
grated to America and arrived, with Mary his 
wife, at Philadelphia, on the 10th of October, 
1717. They brought with them eleven chil- 
dren, two daughters and nine sons. The names 

of three of the sons have come down to us. 

1 



2 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

Jolm, James, and Squire. The last of these, 
Squire Boone, was the father of Daniel. 

George Boone, immediately after his arrival 
in America, purchased a large tract of land in 
what is now Bucks County, which he settled, 
and called it Exeter, after the city near which 
he was born. The records distinguish it only 
as the township of Exeter, without any county. 
He purchased also various other tracts in Mary- 
land and Virginia; and our tradition says, 
among others, the ground on which George- 
town, District of Columbia, now stands, and 
that he laid the town out, and gave it his own 
name. His sons John and James lived and 
died on the Exeter purchase.* 

Daniel Boone's father. Squire Boone, had 
seven sons and four daughters, viz. : James,f 
Samuel, Jonathan, Daniel, George, Squire, Ed- 
ward, Sarah, Elizabeth, Mary, and Hannah. 

Exeter Township is situated in Bucks County, 
Pennsylvania, and now has a population of over 

* " Pittsburg Gazette," quoted by Peck. 

f The eldest, James, was killed by the Indians in 1773, and 
his son Israel was killed at the battle of Blue Licks, August 
19th, 1782. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 3 

two thousand. Here Daniel Boone was bom, 
on the 11 til of February, 1735 * 

Tlie maiden name of Boone's mother was 
Sarah Morgan. Some dispute has arisen re- 
specting the religious persuasion of the Boone 
family. It would appear, on a re^dew of the 
whole controversy, that before their removal 
to this country, the Boones were Episcopalians ; 
but during their residence in Pennsylvania 
they permitted themselves to be considered 
Quakers. What sort of a Quaker Daniel 
Boone himself was, will be apparent in the 
course of our narrative. 

Exeter, the native place of Daniel Boone, 
was at this period a small frontier settlement, 
consisting of log-houses, surrounded with woods, 
which abounded with game of various kinds 
and were occasionally infested with hostile 
Indians. It is not surprising that Daniel, pass- 
ing the period of his boyhood in such a place, 

* Bogant gives 11th of February, 1735. Peck, February, 
1735. Another account gives 1746 as the year of his birth, 
and Bucks County as his birthplace. The family record, in 
the handwriting of Daniel Boone's uncle, James, who was a- 
schoolmaster, gives the 14th of July, 1732. 



4 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

should have acquired at an early age the ac- 
complisliments of a hunter and woodsman. 
From a mere child it was his chief delight to 
roam in the woods, to observe the wild haunts 
of Nature, and to pursue the wild animals 
which were then so abundant. 

Of the boyhood of Daniel Boone, one of his bi- 
ographers gives the following account. Speak- 
ing of the residence of the family at Exeter, 
he says : * 

" Here they lived for ten years ; and it was 
during this time that their son Daniel began to 
show his passion for hunting. He was scarcely 
able to carry a gun when he was shooting all 
the squiiTels, raccoons, and even wild cats (it 
is said), that he could find in that region. As 
he grew older, his courage increased, and then 
we find him amusing himself with higher game. 
Other lads in the neighborhood were soon 
taught by him the use of the rifie, and were 
then able to join him in his adventures. On 
one occasion, they all started out for a. hunt, 

* '* Adventures of Daniel Boone, the Kentucky Rifleman.' 
By the author of *' Uncle Philip's Conversations.'* 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 5 

and, after amusing themselves till it was almost 
dark, were returning homeward, when sud- 
denly a wild cry was heard in the woods. The 
boys screamed out, ' A panther ! A panther ! ' 
and ran off as fast as they could. Boone stood 
firmly, looking around for the animal. It was 
a panther indeed. His eye lighted upon him 
just in the act of springing toward him; in an 
instant he leveled his rifle, and shot him through 
the heart. 

" But this sort of sport was not enough for 
him. He seemed resolved to go away from 
men, and live in the forests with these animals. 
One morning he started off as usual, with his 
rifle and dog. Night came on, but Daniel did 
not retarn to his home. Another day and 
night passed away, and still the boy did not 
make his appearance. His parents were now 
greatly alarmed. The neighbors joined them 
in making search for the lad. After wander- 
ing about a great while, they at leDgth saw 
smoke rising from a cabin in the distance. 
Upon reaching it, they found the boy. The 
floor of the cabin was covered with the skins 



6 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

of sucli animals as lie had slain, and pieces of 
meat were roasting before tlie fire for Ms 
supper. Here, at a distance of three miles 
from any settlement, he had built his cabin of 
sods and branches and sheltered himself in the 
wilderness. 

" It was while his father was living on the 
headwaters of the Schuylkill that young Boone 
received, so far as we know, all his education. 
Short indeed were his schoolboy days. It 
happened that an Irish schoolmaster strolled 
into the settlement, and, by the advice of Mr. 
Boone and other parents, opened a school in 
the neighborhood. It was not then as it is 
now. Good schoolhouses were not scattered 
over the land ; nor were schoolmasters always 
able to teach their pupils. The schoolhouse 
where the boys of this settlement went was a 
log-cabin, built in the midst of the woods. 
The schoolmaster was a strange man ; some- 
times good-humored, and then indulging the 
lads ; sometimes surly and ill-natured, and then 
beating them severely. It was his usual 
custom, after hearing the first lessons of the 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 7 

morning, to allow the children to be out for 
a half hour at play, during which time he 
strolled ofl: to refresh himself from his labors. 
He always walked in the same direction, and 
the boys thought that after his retura, when 
they were called in, he was generally more 
cruel than ever. They were whipped more 
severely, and oftentimes without any cause. 
They observed this, but did not know the 
meaning of it. One morning young Boone 
asked that he might go out, and had scarcely 
left the schoolroom when he saw a squirrel 
running over the trunk of a fallen tree. True 
to his natm^e, he instantly gave chase, until at 
last the squirrel darted into a bower of vines 
and branches. Boone thrust his hand in, and, 
to his surprise, laid hold of a bottle of whisky. 
This was in the direction of his master's morn- 
ing walks, and he thought now that he under- 
stood the secret of much of his ill-nature. He 
returned to the schoolroom; but, when they 
were dismissed for that day, he told some of the 
larger boys of his discovery. Their plan was 
soon arranged Early the next morning a bottle 



8 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

of wliisky, having tartar emetic in it, was placed 
in tlie bower and tlie other bottle thrown away. 
At the usual hour, the lads were sent out to 
play, and the master started on his walk. But 
their play was to come afterward ; they longed 
for the master to retui-n. At length they were 
called in, and in a little time saw the success of 
their experiment. The master began to look 
pale and sick, yet still went on with his work. 
Several boys were called up, one after the 
other, to recite lessons, and all whipped soundly, 
whether right or wrong. At last young Boone 
was called out to answer questions in arith- 
metic. He came forward with his slate and 
pencil, and the master began. " If you subtract 
six from nine what remains ? " said he. " Three, 
sir," said Boone. " Very good," said the master, 
"now let us come to fractions. If you take 
three-quarters from a whole number what re- 
mains?" The whole, sir," answered Boone. 
" You blockhead ! " cried the master, beating 
him ; " you stupid little fool, how can you show 
that ? " " If I take one bottle of whisky," said 
Boone, " and put in its place another in which 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 9 

I have mixed an emetic, the whole will remain 
if nobody drinks it!" The Irishman, dread- 
fully sick, was now doubly enraged. He seized 
Boone, and commenced beating him ; the chil- 
dren shouted and roared ; the scuffle continued 
until Boone knocked the master down upon 
the floor, and rushed out of the room. It was 
a day of freedom now for the lads. The story 
soon ran through the neighborhood ; Boone was 
rebuked by his parents, but the schoolmaster 
was dismissed, and thus ended the boy's educa- 
tion. 

Thus freed from school, he now returned more 
ardently than ever to his favorite pursuit. His 
dog and rifle were his constant companions, and 
day after day he started from home, only to 
roam through the forests. Hunting seemed to 
be the only business of his life ; and he was 
never so happy as when at night he came home 
laden with game. He was an untiring wan- 
derer." 

Perhaps it was not a very serious misfortune 
for Daniel Boone that his school instruction was 
so scanty, for, " in another kind of education," 



10 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

says Mr. Peck,"^ " not unfrequent in tlie wilds of 
the West, he was an adept. No Indian could 
poise the rifle, find his way through the pathless 
forest, or search out the retreats of game, more 
readily than Daniel Boone. In all that related 
to Indian sagacity, border life, or the tactics of 
the skillful hunter, he excelled. The success- 
ful training of a hunter, or woodsman, is a kind 
of education of mental discipline, diifeiing from 
that of the schoolroom, but not less effective in 
giving vigor to the mind, quickness of appre- 
hension, and habits of close observation. Boone 
was regularly trained in all that made him a 
successful backwoodsman. Indolence and im- 
becility never produced a Simon Kenton, a 
Tecumthe, or a Daniel Boone. To gain the 
sMll of an accomplished hunter requires talents, 
patience, perseverance, sagacity, and habits of 
thinking. Amongst other qualifications, knowl- 
edge of human nature, and especially of Indian 
character is indispensable to the pioneer of a 
wilderness. Add to these, seK-possession, self- 
control, and promptness in execution. Persons 

* " Life of Daniel Boone " By John M. Peck, 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. H 

who are unaccustomed to a frontier residence 
know not how much, in the preservation of life, 
and in obtaining subsistence, depends on such 
characteristics ! " 

In the woods surrounding the little settle- 
ment of Exeter, Boone had ample opportunity 
for perfecting himself in this species of mental 
discipline, and of gaining that physical training 
of the limbs and muscles so necessary in the 
pursuits of the active hunter and pioneer. We 
have no record of his ever having encountered 
the Indians during his residence in Pennsyl- 
vania. His knowledge of their peculiar modes 
of hunting and war was to be attained not less 
thoroughly at a somewhat later period of life. 



CHAPTER n. 

Removal of Boone's father and family to North Carolina- 
Location on the Yadkin River— Character of the country 
and the people — Byron's description of the backwoodsman-— 
Daniel Boone marries Rebecca Bryan— His farmer life in 
North Carolina — State of the country — Political troubles 
foreshadowed— Illegal fees and taxes — Probable effect of 
this state of things on Boone's mind — Signs of movement. 

When Daniel Boone was still a youth, Ms 
father emigrated to North Carolina. The pre- 
cise date of this removal of the family residence 
is not known. Mr. Peck, an excellent authority, 
says it took place when Daniel was about eight- 
een years old. This would make it about the 
year 1752. 

The new residence of Squire Boone, Daniel'^ 
father, was near Holman's Ford, on the Yadkin 
River, about eight miles from Wilkesboro'. 
The fact of the great backwoodsman having 
passed many years of his life there is still re- 
membered with pride by the inhabitants of that 

region. The capital of Watauga County which 
12 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 13 

was formed in 1849, is named Boone, in honor 
of Daniel Boone. The historian of North Car- 
olina * is disposed to claim him as a son of the 
State. He says: ^'In North Carolina Daniel 
Boone was reared. Here his youthful days 
were spent ; and here that bold spirit was 
trained, which so fearlessly encountered the 
perils through which he passed in after life. 
His fame is part of her property, and she has 
inscribed his name on a town in the region 
where his youth was spent." 

" The character of Boone is so peculiar," says 
Mr. Wheeler, " that it marks the age in which 
he lived and his name is celebrated in the 
verses of the immortal Byron : 



Of all men- 



Who passes for in life and death most lucky, 
Of the great names which in our faces stare. 
Is Daniel Boone, backwoodsman of Kentucky, 

* * * # 

Crime came not near him — she is not the child 
Of Solitude. Health shrank not from him, for 
Her home is in the rarely-trodden wild. 

* * * » 

And tall and strong and swift of foot are they. 
Beyond the dwarfing city's pale abortions, 

■ John H. Wheeler. •' Historical Sketches of North Carolina. 



14 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

Because their thoughts had never been the prey 
Of care or gain ; the green woods were their portions. 
No sinking spirits told them they grew gray, 
No fashions made them apes of her distortions. 
Simple they were, not savage ; and their rifles, 
Though very true, were not yet used for trifles. 

Motion was in their days, rest in their slumbers, 
And cheerfulness the handmaid of their toil. 
Not yet too many nor too few their numbers; 
Corruption could not make their hearts her soil ; 
The lust which stings, the splendor which encumbers, 
With the free foresters divide no spoil ; 
Serene, not sullen, were the solitudes 
Of this unsighing people of the woods.* " 

We quote these beautiful lines, because they 
so aptly and forcibly describe the peculiar 
character of Boone ; and to a certain extent, as 
Mr. Wheeler intimates, his character was that 
of his times and of his associates. 

It was during the residence of the family on 
the banks of the Yadkin, that Boone formed 
the acquaintance of Bebecca Bryan, whom he 
married.* The marriage appears, by compari* 

* The children by this marriage were nine in number. 
Sons: James, born in 1756, Israel, Jesse, Daniel, and Nathan. 
Daughters : Susan, Jemima, Lavinia, and Rebecca. 

The eldest, James, was killed, as will appear in our subse- 
quent narrative, by the Indians, in 1773 ; and Israel fell in tho 
battle of Blue Licks, May 17th, 1782. In 1846, Nathan, a cap- 
tain in the United States service, was the only fiurviying son. 



LITE OF DANIEL BOONE. 15 

son of dates, to tave taken place in tlie year 
1755. " One almost regrets," says Mr. Peck, 
" to spoil so beautiful a romance, as that whicli 
has had such extensive circulation in the vari- 
ous "Lives of Boone," and which represents 
him as mistaking the bright eyes of this young 
lady, in the dai*k, for those of a deer ; a mistake 
that nearly proved fatal from the unerring rifle 
of the young hunter. Yet in truth, we are 
bound to say, that no such mistake ever hap- 
pened. Our backwoods swains never make 
such mistakes." 

The next ^ve years after his marriage, Daniel 
Boone passed in the quiet pursuits of a farmer's 
life, varied occasionally by hunting excursions 
in the woods. The most quiet and careless of 
the citizens of North Carolina were not unob- 
servant, however, of the political aspect of the 
times. During this period the people, by their 
representatives in the Legislature, began that 
opposition to the Royal authority, which was in 
after years to signalize North Carolina as one 
of the leading Colonies in the Revolutionary 
struggle. 



16 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

The newly-appointed Eoyal Governor, Ar- 
thur Dobbs, arrived at Newbern in the autumn 
of 1754. " Governor Dobbs' administration of 
ten years," says the historian Wheeler, '' was a 
continued contest between himself and the 
Legislature, on matters frivolous and unimpor- 
tant. A high-toned temper for Koyal preroga- 
tives on his part, and an indomitable resistance 
of the Colonists. * ^ * * The people 
were much oppressed by Lord Grenville's 
agents. They seized Corbin, his agent, who 
lived below Edenton, and brought him to En- 
field, where he was compelled to give bond and 
security to produce his books and disgorge his 
illegal fees." 

This matter of illegal fees was part of a sys- 
tem of oppression, kindred to the famous Stamp 
Act — a system which was destined to grow 
more and more intolerable under Governor 
Tryon's administration, and to lead to the for- 
mation of the famous company of Regulators, 
whose resistance of taxation and tyranny was 
soon to convulse the whole State. 

We are by no means to suppose that Daniel 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 17 

Boone was an unobservant spectator of what 
was passing even at the time we are speaking 
of, nor that the doings of the tax-gatherers had 
nothing to do with his subsequent movements. 
He not only hated oppression, but he hated also 
strife and disturbance ; and already began to 
long for a new migration into the distant woods 
and quiet intervales, where politics and the tax- 
gatherer should not intrude. 

The population in his neighborhood was in- 
creasing, and new settlements were being formed 
along the Yadkin and its tributary streams, and 
explorations were made to the northwest on the 
banks of the Holston and Clinch rivers. The 
times were already beginning to exhibit symp- 
toms of restlessness and stir among the people, 
which was soon to result in the formation of 
new States and the settlement of the far West. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Seven Years' War — Cherokee war — Period of Boone's first 
long excursions to the West — Extract from Wheeler's His- 
tory of Tennessee — Indian accounts of the western country — 
Indian traders — Their reports — Western travelers — Doherty 
— Adair — Proceedings of the traders — Hunters — Scotch 
traders — Hunters accompany the traders to the West — 
Their reports concerning the country — Other adventurers — 
Dr. Walker's expedition — Settlements in Southwestern 
Virginia — Indian hostilities — Pendleton purchase — Dr. 
Walker's second expedition — Hunting company of Walker 
and others — Boone travels with them — Curious monument 
left by him. 

The reader will recollect that tlie period re- 
ferred to in tlie last chapter comprehended the 
latter years of the celebrated Seven Years' War. 
During the chief portion of this period, the 
neighboring Colony of Virginia suffered all the 
horrors of Indian war on its western frontier — 
horrors from which even the ability, courage, 
and patriotism of Washington were for a long 
time unable to protect them. The war was 

virtually terminated by the campaign of 1759^ 
18 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 19 

when Quebec was taken. The next year Canada 
was ceded to England ; and a Cherokee war, 
which had disturbed the border settlers of North 
Carolina, was terminated. Daniel Boone's biog- 
raphers all agree that it was about this time 
when he first began to make long excursions 
toward the West ; but it is difficult to fix exactly 
the date of his first long joiu*ney through the 
woods in this direction. It is generally dated 
in 1771 or 1772. We now make a quotation 
from Eamsay's Annals of Tennessee, which 
shows, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that 
he hunted on the Wataga River in 1760, and 
renders it probable that he was in the West at 
an earlier date. Our readers will excuse the 
length of this quotation, as the first part of it 
gives so graphic a picture of the hunter and 
pioneer life of the times of Daniel Boone, and 
also shows what had been done by others in 
western explorations before Boone's expeditions 
commenced. 

" The Colonists of the Carolinas and of Vir- 
ginia had been steadily advancing to the West, 
and we have traced their approaches in the direc- 



20 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

tion of our eastern boundaiy,"^" to tlie base of 
the great Appalachian range. 

" Of the country beyond it, little was positively 
known or accurately understood. A wandering 
Indian would imperfectly delineate upon the 
sand, a feeble outline of its more prominent 
physical features — its magnificent rivers, with 
their numerous tributaries — its lofty mountains, 
its dark forests, its extended plains and its vast 
extent. A voyage in a canoe, from the source 
of the Hogohegee f to the Wabash, J required 
for its performance, in their figurative language, 
" two paddles, two warriors, three moons." The 
Ohio itself was but a tributary of a still larger 
river, of whose source, size and direction, no in- 
telligible account could be communicated or 
understood. The Muscle Shoals and the ob- 
structions in the river above them, were repre- 
sented as mighty cataracts and fearful whirl- 
pools, and the Suck, as an awful vortex. The 
wild beasts with which the illimitable forests 

* That is, the eastern boundary of Tennessee, which was 
then a part of North Carolina. 
f Holston. 
X The Ohio was known many years by this name. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 21 

abounded, were numbered by pointing to the 
leaves upon the trees, or the stars in a cloudless 
sky. 

"These glowing descriptions of the West 
seemed rather to stimulate than to satisfy the 
intense curiosity of the approaching settlers. 
Information more reliable, and more minute, 
was, from time to time, furnished from other 
sources. In the Atlantic cities accounts had 
been received from French and Spanish traders, 
of the unparalleled beauty and fertility of the 
western interior. These reports, highly colored 
and amplified, were soon received and known 
upon the frontier. Besides, persons engaged in 
the interior traffic with the south-western Indian 
tribes had, in times of peace, penetrated their 
territories — traded with and resided amongst 
the natives — and upon their return to the white 
settlements, confirmed what had been previously 
reported in favor of the distant countries they 
had seen. As early as 1690, Doherty, a trader 
from Virginia, had visited the Cherokees and 
afterward lived among them a number of 
years. In 1730, Adair, from South Carolina, 



23 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

had traveled, not only tlirough the towns of 
this tribe, but had extended his tour to most of 
the nations south and west of them. He was 
not only an enterprising trader but an intelli- 
gent tourist. To his observations upon the sev- 
eral tribes which he visited, we are indebted 
for most that is known of their earlier history. 
They were published in London in 1775. 

" In 1740 other traders went among the 
Cherokees from Virginia. They employed Mr. 
Vaughan as a packman, to transport their goods. 
West of Amelia County, the country was then 
thinly inhabited ; the last hunter's cabin that 
he saw was on Otter River, a branch of the 
Staunton, now in Bedford County, Va. The 
route pursued was along the Great Path to the 
center of the Cherokee nation. The traders 
and packmen generally confined themselves to 
this path till it crossed the Little Tennessee 
River, then spreading themselves out among the 
several Cherokee villages west of the mountain, 
continued their traffic as low down the Great 
Tennessee as the Indian settlements upon 
Occochappo or Bear Creek, below the Muscle 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 2S 

Shoals, and there encountered the competition 
of other traders, who were supplied from New 
Orleans and Mobile. They returned, heavily 
laden with peltries, to Charleston, or the more 
northern markets, where they were sold at 
highly remunerating prices. A hatchet, a 
pocket looking-glass, a piece of scarlet cloth, a 
trinket, and other articles of little value, which 
at Williamsburg could be bought for a few 
shillings, would command from an Indian hunter 
on the Hiwasse or Tennessee peltries amounting 
in value to double the number of pounds ster- 
ling. Exchanges were necessarily slow, but the 
profits realized from the operation were im- 
mensely large. In times of peace this traffic 
attracted the attention of many adventurous 
traders. It became mutually advantageous to 
the Indian not less than to the white man. 
The trap and the rifle, thus bartered for, pro- 
cured, in one day, more game to the Cherokee 
hunter than his bow and arrow and his dead-fall 
would have secured during a month of toilsome 
hunting. Other advantages resulted from it to 
the whites. They became thus acquainted with 



24 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

the great avenues leading througli the hunting 
grounds and to the occupied country of the 
neighboring tribes — an important circumstance 
in the condition of either war or peace. Fur- 
ther, the traders were an exact thermometer of 
the pacific or hostile intention and feelings of 
the Indians with whom they traded. Gener- 
ally, they were foreigners, most frequently 
Scotchmen, who had not been long in the 
country, or upon the frontier, who, having ex- 
perienced none of the cruelties, depredations or 
aggressions of the Indians, cherished none of the 
resentment and spirit of retaliation born with, 
and everywhere manifested by, the Ameiican 
settler. Thus, free from animosity against the 
aborigines, the trader was allowed to remain in 
the village where he traded unmolested, even 
when its wamors were singing the war song 
or brandishing the war club, preparatory to an 
invasion or massacre of the whites. Timely 
warning was thus often given, by a returning 
packman to a feeble and unsuspecting settle- 
ment, of the perfidy and cruelty meditated 
against it. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 25 

" This gainful commerce was, for a time, en- 
grossed by tlie traders ; but the monopoly was 
not allowed to continue long. Their rapid ac- 
cumulations soon excited the cupidity of another 
class of adventurers ; and the hunter, in his turn, 
became a co-pioneer with the trader, in the 
march of civilization to the wilds of the West. 
As the agricultural population approached the 
eastern base of the AUeghanies, the game became 
scarce, and was to be found by severe toil in 
almost inaccessible recesses and coves of the 
mountain. Packmen, returning from their trad- 
ing expeditions, carried with them evidences, 
not only of the abundance of game across 
the mountains, but of the facility with which 
it was procured. Hunters began to accompany 
the traders to the Indian towns ; but, unable to 
brook the tedious delay of procuring peltries 
by traffic, and impatient of restraint, they struck 
boldly into the wilderness and western-like, to 
use a western phrase, set up for themselves. 
The reports of their return, and of their success- 
ful enterprise, stimulated other adventurers to 
a similar undertaking. 'As early as 1748 



36 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONB. 

Doctor Thomas Walker, of Vii'ginia, in company 
with Colonels Wood, Patton and Buchanan, and 
Captain Charles Campbell, and a number of 
hunters, made an exploring tour upon the west- 
em waters. Passing Powell's valley, he gave 
the name of " Cumberland " to the lofty range of 
mountains on the west. Tracing this range in 
a southwestern direction, he came to a remark- 
able depression in the chain : thi'ough this he 
passed, calling it " Cumberland Gap." On the 
western side of the range he found a beautiful 
mountain stream, which he named " Cumberland 
River," all in honor of the Duke of Cumberland, 
then prime minister of England.' * These names 
have ever since been retained, and, with Lou- 
don, are believed to be the only names in Ten- 
nessee of English origin. 

" Although Fort Loudon was erected as early 
as 1756 upon the Tennessee, yet it was in ad- 
vance of any white settlements nearly one hun- 
dred and fifty miles, and was destroyed in 1760. 
The fort, too, at Long Island, within the bound- 

• Monette. The Indian nam© of this rang© was Wasioto, 
and of the river, Shawnee. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 27 

aries of the present State of Tennessee, were 
erected in 1758, but no permanent settle- 
ments had yet been formed near it. Still occa- 
sional settlers had begun to fix their habitations 
in the southwestern section of Virginia, and as 
early as 1754, six families were residing west of 
New Eiver. ' On the breaking out of the French 
war, the Indians, in alliance with the French, 
made an irruption into these settlements, and 
massacred Burke and his family. The other 
families, finding their situation too perilous to 
be maintained, returned to the eastern side of 
New River; and the renewal of the attempt 
to carry the white settlements further west 
was not made until afer the close of that 
war.' * 

" Under a mistaken impression that the Vir- 
( ginia line, when extended west, would em- 
( brace it, a grant of land was this year made, 
by the authorities of Virginia, to Edmund 
Pendleton, for three thousand acres of land, 
lying in Augusta County on a branch of 
the middle fork of the Indian river called 

* Howe. 



28 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

West Creek,* now Sullivan County, Tennes- 
see. 

" In this year Doctor Walker again passed over 

( Clincli and Powell's River, on a tour of ex- 

( ploration into what is now Kentucky. 
" The Cherokees were now at peace with the 
whites and hunters from the back settlements 
began with safety to penetrate deeper and f ur- 

(ther into the wilderness of Tennessee. 

(Several of them, chiefly from Virginia, 
hearing of the abundance of game with which 
the woods were stocked, and allured by the 
prospects of gain, which might be drawn from 
this source, formed themselves into a company, 
composed of Wallen, Scaggs, Blevins, Cox, and 
fifteen othei^, and came into the valley since 
known as Carter's Valley, in Hawkins County, 
Tennessee. They hunted eighteen months upon 
Clinch and Powell's Rivers. Wallen's Creek 
and Wallen's Ridge received their name from 
the leader of the company ; as aJso did the 

* The original patent, signed by Governor Dinwiddie, and 
now in the possession of the writer, was presented to him by 
T. A. R. Nelson, Esq., of Jonesboro, Tennessee. It is prob- 
ably the oldest grant in the state. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 29 

station wMcli they erected in tlie present Lee 
County, Virginia, the name of Wallen's station. 
They penetrated as far north as Laurel Moun- 
tain, in Kentucky, where they teiminated their 
journey, having met with a body of Indians, 
whom they supposed to be Shawnees. At the 
head of one of the companies that visited the 
West this year ' came Daniel Boon, from the 
Yadkin, in North Carolina, and traveled with 
them as low as the place where Abingdon now 
stands, and there left them.' 

" This is the first time the advent of Daniel 
Boon to the western wilds has been mentioned 
by historians, or by the several biographers of 
that distinguished pioneer and hunter. There 
is reason, however, to believe that he had hunted 
upon Watauga earlier. The writer is indebted 
to N. Gammon, Esq., formerly of Jonesboro, 
now a citizen of Knoxville, for the following 
inscription, still to be seen upon a beech tree, 
standing in sight and east of the present stage- 
road, leading from Jonesboro to Blountsville, 
and in the valley of Boon's Creek, a tributary 
of Watauga : 



80 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

D.Boon 
CiUED A, BAR On 

Tree 
in ThE 

yEAR 

1760 

"Boon was eighty-six years old when lie 
died, which was September, 1820. He was 
thus twenty-six years old when the inscription 
was made. When he left the company of 
hunters in 1761, as mentioned above by Hay- 
wood, it is probable that he did so to revisit 
the theater of a former hunt upon the creek 
that still bears his name, and where his camp is 
still pointed out near its banks. It is not im- 
probable, indeed, that he belonged to, or ac- 
companied, the party of Doctor Walker, on his 
first, or certainly on his second, tour of explora- 
tion in 1760. The inscription is sufficient au- 
thority, as this writer conceives, to date the 
arrival of Boon in Tennessee as early as its 
date, 1760 thus preceding the permanent settle- 
ment of the country nearly ten years." 

It will be observed that the historian in this 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 81 

extract spells Boon without the final e^ follow- 
ing the orthography of the hunter, in his in- 
scription on the tree. This orthography Boone 
used at a later period, as we shall show. But 
the present received mode of spelling the name 
is the one which we have adopted in this work. 

On a subsequent page of Wheeler's history, 
we find the following memorandum : 

" Daniel Boon, who still lived on the Yadkin, 
though he had previously hunted on the West- 
em waters, came again this year to explore the 
country, being employed for this purpose by 
Henderson & Company. With him came 
Samuel Callaway, his kinsman, and the ancestor 
of the respectable family of that name, pioneers 
of Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri. Callaway 
was at the side of Boon when approaching the 
spurs of the Cumberland Mountain, and in view 
of the vast herds of buffalo grazing in the valleys 
between them, he exclaimed, " I am richer than 
the man mentioned in Scripture, who owned 
the cattle on a thousand hills ; I own the wild 
beasts of more than a thousand valleys." 

After Boone and Callaway, came another 



32 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

hunter, Henry Scaggins, who was also employed 
by Henderson. He extended his explorations 
to the Lower Cumberland, and fixed his station 
at Mansco's Lick. 

We shall have occasion to speak more par- 
ticularly of Henderson's company and Boone's 
connection with it ; but we will first call the 
reader's attention to the state of affairs in North 
Carolina at this period, and their probable in- 
fluence on the course pursued by Daniel Boone. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Political and social condition of North Carolina— Taxes— Law 
suits — Ostentation and extravagance of foreigners and gov- 
ernment officers — Oppression of the people — Murmurs — 
Open resistance — The Regulators — Willingness of Daniel 
Boone and others to migrate, and their reasons — John 
Finlay's expedition to the West — His report to Boone— He 
determines to join Finley in his next hunting tour— New 
company formed, with Boone for leader — Preparations for 
starting — The party sets out — Travels for a month through 
the wilderness — First sight of Kentucky — Forming a camp 
— Hunting buflFaloes and other game — Capture of Boone and 
Stuart by the Indians — Prudent dissimulation — Escape from 
the Indians — Return to tlie old camp — Their companions 
lost — Boone any Stuart renew their hunting. 

There were many circumstances in the social 
and political condition of tlie State of North 
Carolina during the period of Daniel Boone's 
residence on the banks of the Yadkin, which 
were calculated to render him restless and 
quite willing to seek a home in the Western 
wilderness. Customs and fashions were chang- 
ing. The Scotch traders, to whom we have 
3 33 



34: LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

referred in the last chapter, and others of the 
same class, were introducing an ostentatious 
and expensive style of living, quite inappro- 
priate to the rural population of the colony. 
In dress and equipage, they far surpassed the 
f armei's and planters ; and they were not back- 
ward in taking upon themselves airs of superi- 
ority on this account. In this they were imitated 
by the officers and agents of the Royal govern- 
ment of the colony, who were not less fond of 
luxury and show. To support their extrava- 
gant style of living these minions of power, 
magistrates, lawyers, clerks of court, and tax- 
gatherers, demanded exorbitant fees for their 
services. The Episcopal clergy, supported by 
a legalized tax on the people, were not content 
mth their salaiies, but charged enormous fees 
for the occasional services. A fee of fifteen 
dollars was exacted from the poor farmer for 
performing the marriage service. The collec- 
tion of taxes was enforced by suits at law, with 
enormous expense ; and executions, levies, and 
distresses were of every-day occurrence. All 
suras exceeding forty shillings were sued for 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 35 

and executions obtained in the courts, the origi- 
nal debt being saddled with extortionate bills 
of cost. Sheriffs demanded more than w^ due, 
under threats of sheriff's sales ; and they applied 
the gains thus made to their own use. Money, 
as is always the case in a new country, was ex- 
ceedingly scarce, and the sufferings of the people 
were intolerable. 

Petitions to the Legislature for a redress of 
grievances were treated with contempt. The 
people assembled and formed themselves into 
an association for regulating public grievances 
and abuse of power. Hence the name given to 
them of Regulators. They resolved "to pay 
only such taxes as were agreeable to law and 
applied to the purpose therein named, to pay 
no officer more than his legal fees." The sub- 
sequent proceedings of the Regulators, such as 
forcible resistance to officers and acts of per- 
sonal violence toward them, at length brought on 
an actual collision between them and an armed 
force led by the Royal Governor, Tryon (May 
16, 1771,) at Alamanance, in which the Regula- 
tors were defeated; and the grievances con- 



36 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

tinued witli scarcely abated force till ihe Revolu- 
tion brought relief. 

Under these circumstances, it is not surpris- 
ing that Daniel Boone and others were quite 
willing to migrate to the West, if it were only 
to enjoy a quiet life ; the dangers of Indian ag- 
gression being less dreaded than the visits of 
the tax-gatherer and the sheriff ; and the solitude 
of the forest and prairie being preferred to the 
society of insolent foreigners, flaunting in the 
luxury and ostentation purchased by the spoils 
of fraud and oppression. 

Among the hunters and traders who pursued 
their avocations in the Western wilds was John 
Finley, or Findley, who led a party of hunters 
in 1767 to the neighborhood of the Louisa 
River, as the Kentucky River was then called, 
and spent the season in hunting and trapping. 
On his return, he visited Daniel Boone, and 
gave him a most glowing description of the 
country which he had visited — a country abound- 
ing in the richest and most fertile land, inter- 
sected by noble rivers, and teeming with herds 
of deer and buffaloes and numerous flocks of 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 37 

wild turkeys, to say notliing of the smaller 
game. To these descriptions Boone lent a will- 
ing ear. He resolved to accompany Finley in 
his next hunting expedition, and to see this ter- 
restrial paradise with his own eyes, doubtless 
wdth the intention of ultimately seeking a home 
in that delightful region. 

Accordingly, a company of six persons was 
formed for a new expedition to the West, 
and Boone was chosen as leader. The names 
of the other members of this party were John 
Finley, John Stuart, Joseph Holden, James 
Moncey, and William Cool. 

Much preparation seems to have been required. 
Boone's wife, who was one of the best of house- 
keepers and managers, had to fit out his clothes, 
and to make arrangements for housekeeping 
during his expected long absence. His sons 
were now old enough to assist their mother in 
the management of the farm, but, doubtless, 
they had to be supplied with money and other 
necessaries before the father could venture to 
leave home ; so that it was not till the 1st of 
May, 1769, that the party were able to set out. 



38 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

as Boone, in his autobiography, expresses it, " in 
quest of the country of Kentucky." 

It was more than a month before these ad- 
venturers came in sight of the promised land. 
We quote from Mr. Peck's excellent work the 
description which undoubtedly formed the au- 
thority on which the artist has relied in paint- 
ing the accompanying engraving of "Daniel 
Boone's first view of Kentucky." It is as fol- 
lows: 

"It was on the 7th of June, 1769, that six 
men, weary and wayworn, were seen winding 
their way up the steep side of a rugged moun- 
tain in the wilderness of Kentucky. Their 
dress was of the description usually worn at 
that period by all forest rangers. The outside 
garment was a hunting shii't, or loose open 
frock, made of dressed deer skins. Leggings or 
drawers, of the same material, covered the lower 
extremities, to which was appended a pair of 
moccasins for the feet. The cape or collar of 
the hunting shirt, and the seams of the leg- 
gings, were adorned with fringes. The under 
garments were of coarse cotton. A leather belt 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. SO 

encircled the body ; on the right side was sus- 
pended the tomahawk, to he used as a hatchet ; 
on the left side was the hunting-knife, powder- 
horn, bullet-pouch, and other appendages in- 
dispensable for a hunter. Each person bore his 
trusty rifle ; and, as the party slowly made their 
toilsome way amid the shrubs, and over the logs 
and loose rocks that accident had thrown into 
the obscure trail which they were following, 
each man kept a sharp look-out, as though 
danger or a lurking enemy was near. Their 
garments were soiled and rent, the unavoidable 
result of long traveling and exposure to the 
heavy rains that had fallen; for the weather 
had been stormy and most uncomfortable, and 
they had traversed a mountainous wilderness for 
several hundred miles. The leader of the party 
was of full size, vrith a hardy, robust, sinewy 
frame, and keen, piercing hazel eyes, that glanced 
with quickness at every object as they passed 
on, now cast forward in the direction they were 
traveling for signs of an old trail, and in the 
next moment directed askance into the dense 
thicket, or into the deep ravine, as if watching 



4:0 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

some concealed enemy. The reader will recog- 
nize in this man the pioneer Boone, at the head 
of his companions. 

" Toward the time of the setting sun, the party- 
had reached the summit of the mountain range, 
up which they had toiled for some three or four 
hours, and which had bounded their prospect to 
the west during the day. Here new and in- 
describable sceneiy opened to their view. Be- 
fore them, for an immense distance, as if spread 
out on a map, lay the rich and beautiful vales 
watered by the Kentucky River ; for they had 
now reached one of its northern branches. The 
country immediately before them, to use a 
Western phrase, was ^ rolling,' and, in places, 
abruptly hilly ; but far in the vista was seen a 
beautiful expanse of level country, over which 
the buffalo, deer, and other forest animals 
roamed unmolested while they fed on the lux- 
iH'iant herbage of the forest. The countenances 
of the party lighted up with pleasure, congratu- 
lations were exchanged, the romantic tales of 
Finley were confirmed by ocular demonstration, 
and orders were given to encamp for the night 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 41 

in a neighboring ravine. In a deep gorge of the 
mountain a large tree had fallen, surrounded 
with a dense thicket, and hidden from observa- 
tion by the abrupt and precipitous hills. This 
tree lay in a convenient position for the back of 
their camp. Logs were placed on the nght and 
left, leaving the front open, where fire might be 
kindled against another log; and for shelter 
from the rains and heavy dews, bark was peeled 
from the linden trees." 

This rude structure appears to have been the 
headquarters of the hunters through the whole 
summer and autumn, till late in December. 
During this time they hunted the deer, the bear, 
and especially the buffalo. The buffaloes were 
found in great numbers, feeding on the leaves 
of the cane, and the rich and spontaneous fields 
of clover. 

During this long period they saw no Indiana 
That part of the country was not inhabited by 
any tribe at that time, although it was used 
occasionally as a hunting ground by the Shaw- 
anese, the Cherokees and the Chickesaws. The 
land at that time belonged to the colony of 



43 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

Virginia, which then included what is now 
called Kentucky. The title to the ground was 
acquired by a treaty with the Indians, Oct. 5th, 
1770. The Iroquois, at the treaty of Fort Stan- 
wix, in 1768, had already ceded their doubtful 
claim to the land south of the Ohio River, 
to Great Britain ; so that Boone's company 
of hunters were not trespassing upon Indian 
territory at this time.* But they were des- 
tined nevertheless to be treated as intru- 
ders. 

On the 2 2d of December, Boone and John 
Stuart, one of his companions, left their encamp- 
ment, and following one of the numerous paths 
which the buffalo had made through the cane, 
they plunged boldly into the interior of the 
forest. They had as yet, as we have already 
stated, seen no Indians, and the country had 
been reported as totally uninhabited. This was 
true in a strict sense, for although, as we have 
seen, the southern and northwestern tribes were 
in the habit of hunting here as upon neutral 
ground, yet not a single wigwam had been 

*F«ck. Lif«ofBo«nf. 




Boone aud Stuart were instantly seized, disarmed and made prisoners by the 
Indians-Page 43. Daniel Boone. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 43 

erected, nor did tlie land bear the slightest 
mark of having ever been cultivated. 

The different tribes would fall in with each 
other, and fi'om the fierce conflicts which gener- 
ally followed these casual rencounters, the 
country had been known among them by the 
name of " the darlc and hloody ground ! " 

The two adventurers soon learned the addi- 
tional danger to which they were exposed. 
While roving carelessly from canebrake to cane- 
brake, and admiring the rank growth of vege- 
tation, and the variety of timber which marked 
the fertility of the soil, they were suddenly 
alarmed by the appearance of a party of In- 
dians, who, springing from their place of con- 
cealment, rushed upon them with a rapidity 
which rendered escape impossible. 

They were almost instantly seized, disarmed, 
and made prisoners. Their feelings may be 
readily imagined. They were in the hands of 
an enemy who knew no alternative between 
adoption and torture ; and the numbers and 
fleetness of their captors rendered escape by 
open means impossible, while their jealous 



44: LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

vigilance seemed equally fatal to any secret 
attempt. 

Boone, however, was possessed of a temper 
admirably adapted to the circumstances in which 
he was placed. Of a cold and saturnine, rather 
than an ardent disposition, he was never either 
so much elevated by good fortune or depressed 
by bad, as to lose for an instant the full posses- 
sion of all his faculties. He saw that immedi- 
ate escape was impossible, but he encouraged 
his companion, and constrained himself to ac- 
company the Indians in all their excursions, 
with so calm and contented an aii", that their 
vigilance insensibly began to relax. 

On the seventh evening of their captivity, they 
encamped in a thick canebrake, and having 
built a large fire, lay down to rest. The party 
whose duty it was to watch were weary and 
negligent, and about midnight Boone, who had 
not closed an eye, ascertained, from the deep 
breathing all around him, that the whole party, 
including Stuart, was in a deep sleep. 

Gently and gradually extricating himself 
from the Indians who lay around him, he walked 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 45 

cautiously to tlie spot where Stuart lay, and 
having succeeded in awakening him, without 
alarming the rest, he briefly informed him of 
his determination, and exhorted him to arise, 
make no noise, and follow him. Stuai't, al- 
though ignorant of the design, and suddenly 
roused from sleep, fortunately obeyed with 
equal silence and celerity, and within a few 
minutes they were beyond hearing. 

Rapidly traversing the forest, by the light of 
the stars and the bark of the trees, they ascer- 
tained the direction in which the camp lay, but 
upon reaching it on the next day, to their great 
grief, they found it plundered and deserted, 
with nothing remaining to show the fate of their 
companions ; and even to the day of his death, 
Boone knew not whether they had been killed 
or taken, or had voluntarily abandoned their 
cabin and returned.* 

Indeed it has never been ascertained what 
became of Finley and the rest of Boone's party 
of hunters. If Finley himseK had returned to 
Carolina, so remarkable a person would un- 

* McClung. " Western Adventures." 



46 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

doubtedly have left some trace of himself in the 
history of his time ; but no trace exists of any 
of the party who were left at the old camp by 
Boone and Stuart. Boone and Stuart resumed 
their hunting, although their ammunition was 
running low, and they were compelled, by the 
now well-known danger of Indian hostilities, to 
seek for more secret and secure hiding-places at 
night than their old encampment in the ravine. 

The only kind of firearms used by the back- 
woods hunter is the rifle. In the use of this 
weapon Boone was exceedingly skilful. The 
following anecdote, related by the celebrated 
naturalist, Audubon,* shows that he retained 
his wonderful precision of aim till a late period 
of his life. 

" Barking off squirrels is delightful sport, 
and, in my opinion, requires a greater degree of 
accuracy than any other. I first witnessed this 
manner of procuring squirrels whilst near the 
town of Frankfort. The performer was the 
celebrated Daniel Boone. We walked out to- 
gether, and followed the rocky margins of the 

* Ornithological Biography, pp. 293-4, 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 47 

Kentucky Eiver, until we reached a piece of flat 
land thickly covered with black walnuts, oaks, 
and hickories. As the general mast was a good 
one that year, squirrels were seen gamboling 
on every tree around us. My companion, a 
stout, hale, and athletic man, dressed in a home- 
spun hunting-shirt, bare-legged and moccasined, 
carried a long and heavy rifle which, as he was 
loading it, he said had proved efficient in all his 
former undertakings, and which he hoped would 
not fail on this occasion, as he felt proud to 
show me his skill. The gun was wiped, the 
powder measured, the ball patched with six- 
hundred-thread linen, and the charge sent home 
with a hickory rod. We moved not a step from 
the place, for the squirrels were so numerous 
that it was unnecessary to go after them. Boone 
pointed to one of these animals which had ob- 
served us, and was crouched on a branch about 
fifty paces distant, and bade me mark well the 
spot where the ball should hit. He raised his 
piece gradually, until the head (that being the 
name given by the Kentuckians to the sight) of 
the barrel was brought to a line with the spot 



48 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

wMcli he intended to hit. The whip-like re- 
port resounded through the woods and along 
the hills in repeated echoes. Judge of my sur- 
prise, when I perceived that the ball had hit 
the piece of the bark immediately beneath the 
squirrel, and shivered it into splinters, the con- 
cussion produced by which had killed the ani- 
mal, and sent it whirling through the air, as if 
it had been blo^vvn up by the explosion of a 
powder magazine. Boone kept up his firing, 
and before many hoiu's had elapsed we had pro- 
cured as many squirrels as we wished ; for you 
must know that to load a rifle requires only a 
moment, and that if it is wiped once after each 
shot, it will do duty for hours. Since that first 
interview with our veteran Boone, I have seen 
many other individuals perform the same feat." 



CHAPTER V. 

Arrival of Squire Boone and a companion at the camp of 
Daniel Boone — Joyful meeting — News from Home, and 
hunting resumed — Daniel Boone and Stuart surprised by 
the Indians — Stuart killed — Escape of Boone, and his re- 
turn to camp — Squire Boone's companion lost in the woods 
— Residence of Daniel Boone and Squire Boone in the 
wilderness — Squire returns to North Carolina, obtains a 
fresh supply of ammunition, and again rejoins his brother 
at the old camp — Daniel Boone's own account of this re- 
markable period of his life — His return to North Carolina 
— His determination to settle in Kentucky — Other West- 
ern adventurers — The Long hunters — Washington in Ken- 
tucky — Bullitt's party — Floyd's party — Thompson's survey 
— First settlement of Tennessee. 

In tlie early part of the montli of January, 
1776, Boone and Stuart were agreeably sur- 
prised by tlie arrival of Squire Boone, the 
younger brother of Daniel, accompanied by 
another man, whose name has not been handed 
down. The meeting took place as they were 
hunting in the woods. The newcomers were 
hailed at a distance with the usual greeting, 
"Holloa! strangers, who are you?" to which 

they answered, "White men and friends." 
4 49 



50 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

And friends indeed they were — friends in need ; 
for they brought a supply of ammunition and 
news from Daniel Boone's home and family on 
the Yadkin. They had had a weary journey 
through the mlderness, and although they Ijad 
met with no Indians on their way, they had 
frequently come upon their traces in passing 
through the woods. Their purpose in under- 
taking this formidable journey had been to 
learn the fate of Boone and his party, whose 
safety was nearly despaired of by his friends in 
North Carolina, to hunt for themselves, and to 
convey a supply of ammunition to Boone. It 
is difficult to conceive the joy with which their 
opportune arrival was welcomed. They in- 
formed Boone that they had just seen the last 
night's encampment of Stuart and himself, so 
that the joyful meeting was not wholly unan- 
ticipated by them. 

Thus reinforced, the party, now consisting of 
four skilful hunters, might reasonably hope for 
increased security, and a fortunate issue to their 
protracted hunting tour. But they hunted in 
separate parties, and in one of these Daniel 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 51 

Boone and Stuart fell in with a party of In- 
dians, wlio fired upon them. Stuart was shot 
dead and scalped by the Indians, but Boone 
escaped in the forest, and rejoined his brother 
and the remaining hunter of the party. 

A few days afterward this hunter was lost in 
the woods, and did not return as usual to the 
camp. Daniel and Squire made a long and 
anxious search for him ; but it was all in vain. 
Years afterward a skeleton was discovered in 
the woods, which was supposed to be that of 
the lost hunter. 

The two brothers were thus left in the wilder- 
ness alone, separated by several hundred miles 
from home, surrounded by hostile Indians, and 
destitute of everything but their rifles. After 
having had such melancholy experience of the 
dangers to which they were exposed, we would 
naturally suppose that their fortitude would 
have given way, and that they would instantly 
have returned to the settlements. But the most 
remarkable feature in Boone's character was a 
calm and cold equanimity which rarely rose to 
enthusiasm and never sunk to despondence. 



52 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

His courage undervalued the danger to which 
he was exposed, and his presence of mind, which 
never forsook him, enabled him, on all occasions 
to take the best means of avoiding it. The 
wilderness, with all its dangers and privations, 
had a chaiin for him, which is scarcely conceiv- 
able by one brought up in a city, and he deter- 
mined to remain alone while his brother returned 
to Carolina for an additional supply of ammu- 
nition, as their original supply was nearly ex- 
hausted. His situation we should now suppose 
in the highest degree gloomy and dispiriting. 
The dangers which attended his brother on 
his return were nearly equal to his own ; and 
each had left a wife and children, which 
Boone acknowledged cost him many an anxious 
thought. 

But the wild and solitary grandeur of the 
country around him, where not a tree had been 
cut, nor a house erected, was to him an inex- 
haustible source of admiration and delight ; and 
he says to himself, that some of the most rapt- 
urous moments of his life were spent in those 
lonely rambles. The utmost caution was neces- 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 53 

sary to avoid the savages, and scarcely less to 
escape the ravenous hunger of the wolves that 
prowled nightly around him in immense num- 
bers. He was compelled frequently to shift his 
lodging, and by undoubted signs saw that the 
Indians had repeatedly visited his hut during 
his absence. He sometimes lay in canebrakes 
without fire, and heard the yells of the Indians 
around him. Fortunately, however, he never 
encountered them.* 

Mr. Perkins, in his Annals of the West, 
speaking of this sojourn of the brothers in the 
wilderness, says : And now commenced that 
most extraordinary life on the part of these two 
men which has, in a great measure, served to 
give celebrity to their names ; we refer to their 
residence, entirely alone, for more than a year 
in a land filled with the most subtle and un- 
sparing enemies, and under the influence of no 
other motive, apparently, than a love of adven- 
ture, of Nature, and of solitude. Nor were they, 
during this time, always together. For three 
months, Daniel remained amid the forest utterly 
• MoClung. 



54: LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

by himself, while his brother, with courage and 
capacity equal to his own, returned to North 
Carolina for a supply of powder and lead ; with 
which he succeeded in rejoining the roamer of 
the wilderness in safety in July, 1770. 

It is almost impossible to conceive of the 
skill, coolness, and sagacity which enabled 
Daniel Boone to spend so many weeks in the 
midst of the Indians, and yet be undiscovered by 
them. He appears to have changed his position 
continually — ^to have explored the whole center 
of what forms now the State of Kentucky, and 
in so doing must have exposed himself to many 
different parties of the natives. A reader of 
Mr. Cooper's Last of the Mohicans may compre- 
hend, in some measure, the arts by which he 
was presei^ed, but, after all, a natural gift seems 
to lie at the basis of such consummate wood- 
craft ; an instinct, rather than any exercise of 
intellect, appears to have guided Boone in such 
matters, and made him pre-eminent among those 
who were most accomplished in the knowledge 
of forest life. Then we are to remember the 
week's captivity of the previous year ; it wa« 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 55 

the first practical acquaintance that the pioneer 
had with the Western Indians, and we may be 
assured he spent that week in noting carefully 
the whole method of his captors. Indeed, we 
think it probable he remained in captivity so 
long that he might learn their arts, stratagems, 
and modes of concealment. We are, moreover, 
to keep in mind this fact : the woods of Ken- 
tucky were at that period filled with a species 
of nettle of such a character that, being once 
bent down, it did not recover itself, but remained 
prostrate, thus retaining the impression of a foot 
almost like snow — even a turkey might be 
tracked in it with perfect ease. This weed 
Boone would carefully avoid, but the natives, 
numerous and fearless, would commonly pay no 
regard to it, so that the white hunter was sure 
to have palpable signs of the presence of his 
enemies, and the direction they had taken. 
Considering these circumstances, it is even more 
remarkable that his brother should have re- 
turned in safety, with his loaded horses, than 
that he remained alone unharmed ; though in 
the escape of both from captivity or death from 



56 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

January, 1770, until their return to the Atlantic 
rivers in March, 1771, there is something so 
wonderful that the old pioneer's phrase, that he 
was "an instrument ordained to settle the wil- 
derness," seems entirely proper. 

Daniel Boone's own account of this period of 
his life, contained in his autobiography, is highly 
characteristic. It is as follows : 

" Thus situated, many hundred miles from our 
families in the howling wilderness, I believe few 
would have equally enjoyed the happiness we 
experienced. I often observed to my brother, 
' You see now how little nature requires to be 
satisfied. Felicity, the companion of content, 
is rather found in our own breasts than in the 
enjoyment of external things ; and I firmly be- 
lieve it requires but a little philosophy to make 
a man happy in whatsoever state he is. This 
consists in a full resignation to Providence, and 
a resigned soul finds pleasure in a path strewed 
with briers and thorns.' 

" We continued not in a state of indolence, but 
hunted every day, and prepared a little cottage 
to defend us from the winter storms. We re- 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 57 

mained there undisturbed during the winter; 
and on the first of May, 1770, my brother re- 
turned home to the settlement by himself for a 
new recruit of horses and ammunition, leaving 
me by myself, without bread, salt, or sugar, 
without company of my fellow-creatures, or even 
a horse or dog. I confess I never before was 
under greater necessity of exercising philosophy 
and fortitude. A few days I passed uncomfort- 
ably. The idea of a beloved wife and family, 
and their anxiety on account of my absence and 
exposed situation, made sensible impressions on 
my heart. A thousand dreadful apprehensions 
presented themselves to my view, and had un- 
doubtedly disposed me to melancholy if further 
indulged. 

" One day I undertook a tour through the 
country, and the diversity and beauties of Na- 
ture I met with in this charming season expelled 
every gloomy and vexatious thought. Just at 
the close of day the gentle gales retired, and 
left the place to the disposal of a profound calm. 
Not a breeze shook the most tremulous leaf. I 
had gained the summit of a commanding ridge, 



58 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

and, looking round with astonishing delight, 
teheld the ample plains, the beauteous tracts 
below. On the othor hand, I surveyed the 
famous river Ohio that rolled in silent dignity, 
marking the western boundary of Kentucky 
with inconceivable grandeur. At a vast distance 
I beheld the mountains lift their venerable 
brows, and penetrate the clouds. All things 
were still. I kindled a fire near a fountain of 
sweet water, and feasted on the loin of a buck, 
which a few hours before I had killed. The 
fallen shades of night soon overspread the whole 
hemisphere, and the earth seemed to gape after 
the hovering moisture. My roving excursion 
this day had fatigued my body, and diverted 
my imagination. I laid me down to sleep, and 
I awoke not until the sun had chased away the 
night. I continued this tour, and in a few days 
explored a considerable part of the country, 
each day equally pleased as the first. I returned 
to my old camp, which was not disturbed in my 
absence. I did not confine my lodging to it, 
but often reposed in thick canebrakes to avoid 
the savages, who, I believe, often visited my 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. g^ 

camp, but fortunately for me in my absence. 
In this situation I was constantly exposed to 
danger and death. How unhappy such a situ- 
ation for a man tormented with fear, which is 
vain if no danger comes, and, if it does, only 
augments the pain. It was my happiness to be 
destitute of this afficting passion, with which 
I had the greatest reason to be affected. The 
prowling wolves diverted my nocturnal hours 
with perpetual bowlings ; and the various species 
of animals in this vast forest in the daytime 
were continually in my view. 

" Thus I was surrounded with plenty in the 
midst of want. I was happy in the midst of 
dangers and inconveniences. In such a diver- 
sity it was impossible I should be disposed to 
melancholy. No populous city, with all the 
varieties of commerce and stately structures, 
coidd afford so much pleasure to my mind as 
the beauties of Nature I found here. 

"Thus, through an uninterrupted scene of 
sylvan pleasures, I spent the time until the 27 th 
day of July following, when my brother, to my 
great felicity, met me according to appointment, 



60 LITE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

at our old camp. Shortly after we left this 
place, not thinking it safe to stay there any 
longer, and proceeded to Cumberland River, 
reconnoitering that part of the country until 
March, 1771, and giving names to the different 
waters. 

" Soon after, I returned home to my family, 
with a determination to bring them as soon as 
possible to live in Kentucky, which I esteemed 
a second paradise, at the risk of my life and 
fortune. 

" I returned safe to my old habitation, and 
found my family in happy circumstances." 

This extract is taken from the autobiogi^aphy 
of Daniel Boone, wiitten from his own dictation 
by John Filson, and published in 1784. Some 
writers have censured this production as in- 
flated and bombastic. To us it seems simple 
and natural ; and we have no doubt that the 
very words of Boone are given for the most part. 
The use of glowing imagery and strong figures 
is by no means confined to highly-educated per- 
sons. Those who are illiterate, as Boone cer- 
tainly was, often indulge in this style. Even 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 6t 

the Indians are remarkably fond of bold meta- 
phors and other rhetorical figures, as is abun- 
dantly proved by their speeches and legends. 

While Boone had been engaged in his late 
hunting tour, other adventurers vrere examin- 
ing the rich lands south of the Ohio."^ Even in 
1770, while Boone was wandering solitary in 
those Kentucky forests, a band of forty hunters, 
led by Colonel James Knox, had gathered from 
the valleys of New River, Clinch, and Holston, 
to chase the buffaloes of the West ; nine of the 
forty had crossed the mountains, penetrated the 
desert and almost impassable country about the 
heads of the Cumberland, and explored the re- 
gion on the borders of Kentucky and Tennessee. 
This hunting party, from the length of time it 
was absent, is known in the traditions of the 
West as the party of the Long Hunters. While 
these bold men were penetrating the valley of 
the Ohio, in the region of the Cumberland Gap, 
others came from Virginia and Pennsylvania, by 
the river ; among them, and in the same year 
that the Long Hunters were abroad (1770), 

* Perkins. " Annals of the West." 



^ LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

came no less noted a person than George Wash- 
ington. His attention, as we have before said, 
had been turned to the lands along the Ohio, at 
a very early period ; he had himself large claims, 
as well as far-reaching plans of settlement, and 
he wished with his own eyes to examine the 
Western lands, especially those about the mouth 
of the Kanawha, From the journal of his ex- 
pedition, published by Mr. Sparks, in the Ap- 
pendix to the second volume of his Washington 
Papers, we learn some valuable facts in reference 
to the position of affairs in the Ohio valley at 
that time. We learn, for instance, that the Vir- 
ginians were rapidly surveying and settling the 
lands south of the river as far down as the Kana- 
whas ; and that the Indians, notwithstanding 
the treaty of Fort Stanwix, were jealous and 
angry at this constant invasion of their hunting- 
grounds. 

" This jealousy and anger were not supposed 
to cool during the years next succeeding, and 
when Thomas Bullitt and his party descended 
the Ohio in the summer of 1773, he found that 
no settlements would be tolerated south of the 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 63 

river, unless the Indian hunting-gronnds were 
left undisturbed. To leave them undisturbed 
was, however, no part of the plan of these white 
men. 

" This very party, which Bullitt led, and in 
which were the two McAfees, Hancock, Taylor, 
Drennon and others, separated, and while part 
went up the Kentucky Eiver, explored the banks, 
and made important surveys, including the val- 
ley in which Frankfoi't stands, the remainder 
went on to the Falls, and laid out, in behalf of 
John Campbell and John Connolly the plan of 
Louisville. All this took place in the summer 
of 1773 ; and in the autumn of that year, or early 
in the next, John Floyd, the deputy of Colonel 
William Preston, the surveyor of Fincastle 
County, Virginia, in which it was claimed that 
Kentucky was comprehended, also crossed the 
mountains , while General Thompson, of Penn- 
sylvania, made surveys upon the north fork of 
the Licking. When Boone, therefore, in Septem- 
ber, commenced his march for the West (as we 
shall presently relate), the choice regions which 
he had examined three yeai^ before were known 



^ LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

to nimibers, and settlers were preparing to dese- 
crate the silent and beautiful woods. Nor did 
the prospects of tlie English colonists stop with 
the settlements of Kentucky. In 1773, General 
Lyman, with a number of military adventurers, 
went to Natchez and laid out several townships 
in that vicinity ; to which point emigration set 
so strongly, that we are told four hundred 
families passed down the Ohio on their way 
thither, during six weeks of the summer of that 
year." * 

* Perkins. *' Annals of the West." 



CHAPTEE VI. 

Daniel Boone remains two years in North Carolina after his 
return from the West — He prepares to emigrate to Ken- 
tucky — Character of the early settlers to Kentucky — The 
first class, hunters — The second class, small farmers — The 
third class, men of wealth and government officers. 

Daniel Boone had now returned to Lis home 
on the banks of the Yadkin, after an absence of 
no less than two years, during which time he 
had not tasted, as he remarks in his autobiogra- 
phy, either salt, sugar, or bread. He must have 
enjoyed, in no ordinary degree, the comforts of 
home. Carolina, however, was to be his home 
but for a short time. He had fully determined 
to go with his family to Kentucky and settle in 
that lovely region. He was destined to found a 
State. 

After Boone's return to North Carolina, more 
than two years passed away before he could 
complete the arrangements necessary for remov- 
ing his family to Kentucky. He sold his farm 
5 65 



66 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

on the Yadkin, which had been for many years 
under cultivation, and no doubt brought him a 
sum amply sufficient for the expenses of his 
journey and the furnishing of a new home in 
the promised land. He had, of course, to over- 
come the natural repugnance of his wife and 
children to leave the home which had become 
dear to them ; and he had also to enlist other 
adventurers to accompany him. And here we 
deem it proper, before entering upon the account 
of his departure, to quote from a cotemporary,* 
some general remarks on the character of the 
early settlers of Kentucky. 

" Throughout the United States, generally, the 
most erroneous notions prevail with respect to 
the character of the first settlers of Kentucky ; 
and by several of the American novelists, the 
most ridiculous uses have been made of the fine 
materials for fiction which lie scattered over 
nearly the whole extent of that region of daring 
adventure and romantic incident. The common 
idea seems to be, that the first wanderers to 
Kentucky were a simple, ignorant, low-bred, 

♦ W. D. Gallagher, " Hesperian," Vol, II., p. 89, 



LirE OF DANIEL BOONE. CT 

good-for-notliing set of fellows, who left the 
frontiers and sterile places of the old States, 
where a considerable amount of labor was nec- 
essary to secure a livelihood, and sought the new 
and fertile country southeast of the Ohio Eiver 
and northwest of the Cumberland Mountains, 
where corn would produce bread for them with 
simply the labor of planting, and where the 
achievements of their guns would supply them 
with meat and clothing ; a set of men who, with 
that instinct which belongs to the beaver, built 
a number of log cabins on the banks of some 
secluded stream, which they surrounded with 
palisades for the better protection of their wives 
and childi'en, and then went wandering about, 
with guns on their shoulders, or traps under 
their arms, leading a solitary, listless, ruminalr 
ing life, till aroused by the appearance of dan- 
ger, or a sudden attack from unseen enemies, 
when instantly they approved themselves the 
bravest of warriors, and the most expert of 
strategists. The romancers who have attempted 
to describe their habits of life and delineate 
their characters, catching this last idea, and im- 



68 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

agining things probable of the country they were 
in, have drawn the one in lines the most gro- 
tesque and absurd, and colored the other with 
a pencil dipped in all hues but the right. To 
them the early pioneers appear to have been 
people of a character demi-devil, demi-savage, not 
only without the remains of former civilization, 
but without even the recollection that they 
had been born and bred where people were, 
at the least, measurably sane, somewhat reli- 
giously inclined, and, for the most, civilly 
behaved. 

" Both of these conceptions of the character of 
the Pioneer Fathers are, to a certain extent, cor- 
rect as regards individuals among them; but 
the pictures which have often been given us, 
even when held up beside such individuals^ will 
prove to be exaggerations in more respects than 
one. Daniel Boone is an individual instance 
of a man plunging into the depths of an un- 
known wilderness, shunning rather than seek- 
ing contact with his kind, his gun and trap the 
only companions of his solitude, and wandering 
about thus for months, 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 69 

** No mark upon the tree, nor print, nor track, 
To lead him forward, or to guide him back," 

contented and tappy ; yet, for all this, if those 
who knew him well had any true conception of 
his character, Boone was a man of ambition, 
and shrewdness, and energy, and fine social 
qualities, and extreme sagacity. And individ- 
ual instances there may have been — though 
even this possibility is not sustained by the 
primitive histories of those times — of men who 
were so far outre to the usual course of their 
kind, as to have afforded originals for the Sam 
Huggs the Nimrod Wildfires^ the lialph Sta/^k- 
foles^ the To7)i Bruces^ and the Earihguakes^ 
which so abound in most of those fictions whose 
locale \^ the Western country. But that natur- 
alist who should attempt, by ever so minute a 
description of a pied blackbird, to give his readers 
acorrectideaof the Gr acuta Fermigineaoi orni- 
thologists, would not more utterly fail of accom- 
plishing his object, than have the authors whose 
creations we have named, by delineating such 
individual instances — by holding up, as it were, 
such outre specimens of an original class — failed 



70 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

to convey anything like an accurate impression 
of the habits, customs, and general character 
of the Western pioneers. 

*' Daniel Boone, and those who accompanied 
him into the wildernesses of Kentucky, had 
been little more than hunters in their original 
homes, on the frontiers of North Carolina ; and, 
with the exception of their leader, but little 
more than hunters did they continue after their 
emigration. The most glowing accounts of the 
beauty and fertility of the country northwest 
of the Laurel Ridge, had reached their ears 
from Finley and his companions ; and they 
shouldered their guns, strapped their wallets 
upon their backs and wandered through the 
Cumberland Gap into the dense forests, and 
thick brakes, and beautiful plains which soon 
opened upon their visions, more to indulge a 
habit of roving, and gratify an excited curi- 
osity, than from any other motive ; and, arrived 
upon the head-waters of the Kentucky, they 
built themselves rude log cabins, and spent 
most of their lives in hunting and eating, and 
fighting marauding bands of Indians. Of a 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. Yl 

Similar character were the earliest Virginians, 
who penetrated these wildernesses. The very- 
first, indeed, who wandered from the parent 
State over the Laurel Kidge, down into the 
unknown regions on its northwest, came avow- 
edly as hunters and trappers ; and such of 
them as escaped the tomahawk of the Indian, 
with very few exceptions, remained hunters 
and trappers till their deaths. 

" But this first class of pioneers was not either 
numerous enough, or influential enough, to stamp 
its character upon the after-coming hundreds ; 
and the second class of immigrants into Ken- 
tucky was composed of very different materials. 
Small farmers from North Carolina, Virginia, 
and Pennsylvania, for the most part, constituted 
this ; and these daring adventurers brought 
with them intelligent and aspiring minds, in- 
dustrious and persevering habits, a few of the 
comforts of civilized life, and some of the im- 
plements of husbandry. A number of them 
were men who had received the rudiments of an 
English education, and not a few of them had 
been reared up in the spirit, and a sincere 



12 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

observance of the forms, of religious worship. 
Many, perhaps most of them, were from the 
frontier settlements of the States named ; and 
these combined the habits of the hunter and 
agriculturist, and possessed, with no inconsid- 
erable knowledge of partially refined life, all 
that boldness and energy, which subsequently 
became so distinctive a trait of the character of 
the early settlers. 

" This second class of the pioneers, or at least 
the mass of those who constituted it, sought the 
plains and forests, and streams of Kentucky, 
not to indulge any inclination for listless ram- 
blings ; nor as hunters or trappers ; nor yet for 
the purpose of gratifying an awakened curi- 
osity : they came deliberately, soberly, thought- 
fully, in search of a liome^ determined, from the 
outset, to win one, or perish in the attempt ; they 
came to cast their lot in a land that was new, 
to better their worldly condition by the acqui- 
sition of demesnes, to build up a new common- 
wealth in an unpeopled region ; tbey came with 
their mves, and their children, and their kin- 
dred, from places where the toil of the hand, 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 73 

and the sweat of tlie brow, could hardly supply 
them with bread, to a land in which ordinary 
industry would, almost at once, furnish all the 
necessaries of life, and where it was plain well- 
directed effort would ultimately secure its ease, 
its dignity, and its refinements. Poor in the 
past, and with scarce a hope, without a change 
of place, of a better condition of earthly ex- 
istence, either for themselves or their offspring, 
they saw themselves, loith that change, rich 
in the future, and looked forward with cer- 
tainty to a time when their children, if not 
themselves, would be in a condition improved 
beyond compare. 

" There was also a third class of pioneers, who 
in several respects differed as much from either 
the first or the second class, as these differed 
from each other. This class, was composed, in 
great pai't, of men who came to Kentucky after 
the way had been in some measure prepared for 
immigrants, and yet before the setting in of that 
tide of population which, a year or two after 
the close of the American Revolution poured 
so rapidly into these fertile regions from several 



74r LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

of the Atlantic States. In this class of immi- 
grants, there were many gentlemen of educa- 
tion, refinement, and no inconsiderable wealth ; 
some of whom came to Kentucky as surveyors, 
others as commissioners from the parent State, 
and others again as land speculators ; but most 
of them as hona-fde immigrants, determined to 
pitch their tents in the Great West, at once to 
become units of a new people, and to grow into 
affluence, and consideration, and renown, with 
the growth of a young and vigorous common- 
wealth. 

" Such were the founders of Kentucky ; and 
in them we behold the elements of a society in- 
ferior, in all the essentials of goodness and great- 
ness, to none in the world. First came the 
hunter and trapper, to trace the river courses, 
and spy out the choice spots of the land ; then 
came the small farmer and the hardy adventurer, 
to cultivate the rich plains discovered, and lay 
the nucleuses of the towns and cities, which were 
so soon, and so rapidly, to spring up ; and then 
came the surveyor, to mark the boundaries of 
individual possessions and give civil shape and 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. <^5 

strengtli to the unformed mass, the speculator 
to impart a new activity and keenness to the 
minds of men, and the chivalrous and educated 
gentleman, to infuse into the crude materials 
here collected together the feelings and senti- 
ments of refined existence, and to mould them 
into forms of conventional beauty and social 
excellence. Kentucky now began to have a 
society^ in which were the sinews of war, the 
power of production, and the genius of improve- 
ment ; and from this time, though still harassed, 
as she had been from the beginning, by the in- 
roads of a brave and determined enemy on her 
north her advancement was regular and rapid." 



CHAPTER VII. 

Daniel Boone sets out for Kentucky with his family and his 
brother Squire Boone — Is joined by five families and forty 
men at Powell's Valley — The party is attacked by Indians 
and Daniel Boone's oldest son is killed — The party return 
to the settlements on Clinch River — Boone, at the request 
of Governor Dunmore, goes to the West and conducts a 
party of Surveyors to Virginia — Boone receives the com- 
mand of three garrisons and the commission of captain — 
He takes a part in the Dunmore war — Battle of Point 
Pleasant and termination of the war. 

Having completed all his arrangements for 
the journey, on the 25th of September, 1774, 
Daniel Boone, with his wife and children, set 
out on his journey to the West. He was ac- 
companied by his brother. Squire Boone ; and 
the party took with them cattle and swine with 
a view to the stocking of their farms, when they 
should arrive in Kentucky. Their bedding and 
other baggage was carried by pack-horses. 

At a place called Powell's Valley, the party 

was reinforced by another body of emigrants to 
76 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 77 

the West consisting of ^ve families and no less 
than forty able-bodied men; well armed and 
provided with provisions and ammunition. 

They now went on in high spirits, " camping 
out " every night in woods, under the shelter of 
rude tents constructed with poles covered with 
bed-clothes. They thus advanced on their 
journey without accident or alarm, until the 6th 
of October, when they were approaching a pass 
in the mountains, called Cumberland Gap. The 
young men who were engaged in driving the 
cattle had fallen in rear of the main body a dis- 
tance of five or six miles, when they were sud- 
denly assailed by a party of Indians, who killed 
six of their number and dispersed the cattle 
in the woods. A seventh man escaped with a 
wound. The reports of the musketry brought 
the remainder of the party to the rescue, who 
drove off the Indians and buried the dead. 
Among the slain was the oldest son of Daniel 
Boone. 

A council was now held to determine on 
their future proceedings. Notwithstanding the 
dreadful domestic misfortune which he had ex- 



78 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE, 

perienced in the loss of his son, Daniel Boone 
was for proceeding to Kentucky ; in this opinon 
he was sustained by his brother and some of the 
other emigrants; but most of them, were so 
much disheartened by the misfortune they had 
met with, that they insisted on returning ; and 
Boone and his brother yielding to their wishes, 
returned to the settlement on the Clinch River 
in the southwestern part of Virginia, a distance 
of forty miles from the place where they had 
been surprised by the Indians. 

Here Boone was obliged to remain with his 
family for the present ; but he had by no means 
relinquished his design of settling in Kentucky. 
This delay, however, was undoubtedly a provi- 
dential one ; for in consequence of the murder 
of the family of the Indian chief Logan, a ter- 
rible Indian war, called in history the Dunmore 
War, was impending, which broke out in the 
succeeding year, and extended to that part of 
the West to which Boone and his party were 
proceeding, when they were turned back by the 
attack of the Indians. 

In this war Daniel Boone was destined to 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 7^ 

take an active part. In his autobiography, 
abeady quoted, he says : 

" I remained with my family on Clinch until 
the 6th of June, 1774, when I and one Michael 
Stoner were solicited by Governor Dunmore, of 
Virginia, to go to the Falls of the Ohio, to con- 
duct into the settlement a number of surveyors 
that had been sent thither by him some months 
before; this country having about this time 
drawn the attention of many adventurers. We 
immediately complied with the governor's re- 
quest, and conducted in the surveyors, complet- 
ing a tour of eight hundred miles, through many 
difficulties, in sixty-two days ! 

" Soon after I returned home, I was ordered 
to take command of three garrisons, during the 
campaign which Governor Dunmore carried on 
against the Shawanese Indians." 

These three garrisons were on the frontier 
contiguous to each other; and with the com- 
mand of them Boone received a commission as 
captain. 

We quote from a contemporary an account of 
the leading events of this campaign, and of the 



80 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

battle of Point Pleasant, wliicli may be said to 
have terminated the war. Whether Boone was 
present at this battle is uncertain ; but his well- 
known character for ability and courage renders 
it probable that he took a part in the action. 

" The settlers, now aware that a general war- 
fare would be commenced by the Indians, imme- 
diately sent an express to Williamsburg, the seat 
of government in Virginia, communicating their 
apprehensions and soliciting protection. 

"The Legislature was in session at the time, 
and it was immediately resolved upon to raise 
an array of about three thousand men, and march 
into the heart of the Indian country. 

" One half of the requisite number of troops 
was ordered to be raised in Virginia, and marched 
under General Andrew Lewis across the country 
to the mouth of the Kanawha ; and the remainder 
to be rendezvoused at Fort Pitt, and be com- 
manded by Dunmore in person, who proposed 
to descend the Ohio and join Lewis at the place 
mentioned, from where the combined army was 
to march as circumstances might dictate at the 
time. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 81 

"By the llth of September the troops under 
General Lewis, numbering about eleven hundred 
men, were in readiness to leave. The distance 
across to the mouth of the Kanawha, was near 
one hundred and sixty miles through an un- 
broken wilderness. A competent guide was 
secured, the baggage mounted on pack horses, 
and in nineteen days they arrived at the place 
of destination. 

" The next morning after the arrival of the 
ai'my at Point Pleasant, as the point of the land 
at the junction of the Kanawha and the Ohio 
was called, two men were out some distance 
from the camp, in pursuit of a deer, and were 
suddenly fired upon by a large body of Indians ; 
one was killed, and the other with difficulty 
retreated back to the army, who hastily reported 
* that he had seen a body of the enemy covering 
four acres of ground, as closely as they could 
stand by the side of each other.' 

'' General Lewis was a remarkably cool and 
considerate man ; and upon being informed of 
this, ' after deliberately lighting his pipe,' gave 
orders that the regiment under his brother, 



82 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

Colonel Charles Lewis, and another under Colo- 
nel Fleming, should march and reconnoiter the 
enemy, while he would place the remainder of 
the troops in order for battle. The two regi- 
ments marched without delay, and had not pro- 
ceeded more than four hundi*ed yards when 
they were met by the Indians, approaching for 
the same purpose. A skirmish immediately 
ensued, and before the contest had continued 
long, the colonels of the two regiments fell 
mortally wounded, when a disorder in the ranks 
followed, and the troops began a precipitate 
retreat ; but almost at this moment another regi- 
ment under Colonel Field ai-riving to their aid 
and coming up mth great firmness to the attack, 
effectually checked the savages in the pursuit, 
and obliged them in turn to give way till they 
had retired behind a breastwork of logs and 
brush which they had partially constructed. 

" Le^vis, on his arrival at the place, had en- 
camped quite on the point of land between the 
Ohio and Kanawha, and having moved but 
a short distance out to the attack, the distance 
across from river to river was still but short. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. gg 

The Indians soon extending their ranks entirely 
across, had the Virginians completely hemmed 
in, and in the event of getting the better of 
them, had them at their disposal, as there could 
have been no chance for escape. 

"Never was ground maintained with more 
obstinacy ; for it was slowly, and with no pre- 
cipitancy, that the Indians retired to their 
breastwork. The division under Lewis was 
first broken, although that under Fleming was 
nearly at the same moment attacked. This 
heroic officer first received two balls through 
his left wrist, but continued to exercise his com- 
mand with the greatest coolness and jDresence 
of mind. His voice was continually heard, 
' Don't lose an inch of ground. Advance, out- 
flank the enemy, and get between them and the 
river.' But his men were about to be out- 
flanked by the body that had just defeated 
Lewis. Meanwhile the arrival of Colonel Field 
turned the fortune of the day, but not without a 
severe loss. Colonel Fleming was again wound- 
ed, by a shot thi^ough the lungs ; yet he would 
not retire, and Colonel Field was killed as he 



84 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

was leading on his men. The whole line of the 
breastwork now became as a blaze of fire, which 
lasted nearly till the close of the day. Here 
the Indians under Logan, Cornstock, Elenipsico 
Red-Eagle, and other mighty chiefs of the tribes 
of the Shawanese, Delawares, Mingos, Wyan- 
dots, and Cayugas, amounting, as was supposed, 
to fifteen hundred warriors, fought, as men will 
ever do for their country's wrongs, with a brav- 
ery which could only be equaled. The voice of 
the great Cornstock was often heard duiing the 
day, above the din of strife, calling on his men 
in these words : ' Be strong ! Be strong ! ' And 
when by the repeated charges of the whites, 
some of his warriors began to waver, he is said 
to have sunk his tomahawk into the head of one 
who was basely endeavoring to desert. General 
Lewis, finding at length that every charge upon 
the lines of the Indians lessened the number of 
his forces to an alarming degree, and rightly 
judging that if the Indians were not routed be- 
fore it was dark, a day of more doubt might 
follow, he resolved to throw a body, if possible, 
into their rear. As the good fortune of the 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 85 

Virginians turned, the bank of the river fa- 
vored this project, and forthwith three com- 
panies were detached upon the enterprise, under 
the three captains, Isaac Shelby (after renowned 
in the revolution, and since in the war with 
Canada), George Matthews, and John Stewart. 
These companies got unobserved to their place 
of destination upon Crooked Creek, which runs 
into the Kanawha. From the high weeds upon 
the bank of this little stream, they rushed upon 
the backs of the Indians with such fury, as to 
drive them from their works with precipitation. 
The day was now decided. The Indians, thus 
beset from a quarter they did not expect, 
were ready to conclude that a reinforcement 
had arrived. It was about sunset when 
they fled across the Ohio, and immediately 
took up their march for their towns on the 
Scioto." 

Of the loss of both Indians and whites in this 
engagement, various statements have been given. 
A number amounting to seventy-five killed and 
one hundred and forty wounded of the whites 
has been rendered ; with a loss on part of the 



86 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

Indians not so great, but not correctly known * 
This was the severest battle ever fought with 
the Indians in Virginia. Shortly after this 
battle the Indians sent messengers to Governor 
Dunmore, suing for peace, and a treaty was ac- 
cordingly concluded. In this treaty the Indians 
surrendered all claim to Kentucky. The Six 
Nations had already done the same thing at the 
Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768. The Chero- 
kees had sold their claims to Henderson's com- 
pany ; so that when Boone settled in Kentucky 
it was effectually cleared of all Indian titles. 

♦ •' History of the Backwoods," 



CHAPTER Vm 

The militia discharged — Captain Boone returns to his family 
— Hendei-son's company — Various companies of emigrants 
to Kentucky — Bounty lands — Harrod's party builds the 
first log-cabin erected in Kentucky, and founds Harrods- 
burg — Proceedings of Henderson's company — Agency of 
Captain Boone — He leads a company to open a road to 
Kentucky River — Conflicts with the Indians — Captain 
Boone founds Boonesborough — His own account of this ex- 
pedition — His letter to Henderson — Account of Colonel 
Henderson and the Transylvania Company— Failure of the 
scheme— Probability of Boone having been several years in 
the service of Henderson. 

On the conclusion of Dunmore's war, the 
militia were discharged from service, the gar- 
risons which had been under Captain Daniel 
Boone's command were broken up, and he once 
more returned to his family, who were still 
residing on Clinch River. But he was not long 
permitted to remain comparatively idle. Cap- 
tain Boone's character as an able officer and a 
bold pioneer was now well known and appre- 
ciated by the public The marks of confidence 
87 



88 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

bestowed on him by Governor Dunmore rendered 
him one of the most conspicuous men in the 
Southern colonies, and his services vrere soon 
to be put in requisition by the most considerable 
and remarkable of all the parties of adventurers 
who ever sought a home in the West. This was 
Hendei-son's company, called the Transylvania 
Company, to whose proceedings we shall pres- 
ently refer. 

Between 1769 and 1773, various associations of 
men were formed, in Virginia and North Caro- 
lina, for visiting the newly-discovered regions 
and locating lands ; and several daring adven- 
turers, at different times during this period pene- 
trated to the head-watei-s of the Licking River, 
and did some surveying ; but it was not till the 
year 1774 that the whites obtained any perma- 
nant foothold in Kentucky. From this year, 
therefore, properly dates the commencement of 
the early settlements of the State.* 

The first great impetus given to adventure in 
Kentucky was by the bounty in Western lands 
given by Virginia to the officers and soldiers of 

* Gallagher. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 89 

her own troops who had served in the British 
army in the old war in Canada between the 
English and French. These lands were to be 
surveyed on the Ohio River, and its tributaries 
by the claimants thus created, who had the priv- 
ilege of selecting them wherever they pleased 
within the prescribed regions. The first loca- 
tions were made upon the Great Kanawha in 
the year 1772 and the next on the south side of 
the Ohio itself the following year. During this 
year likemse, extensive tracts of land were lo- 
cated on the north fork of the Licking, and 
surveys made of several salt licks, and other 
choice spots. But 1774 was more signalized 
than had been any preceding year by the arri- 
val, in the new " land of promise," of the claim- 
ants to portions of its territory, and the execu- 
tion of surveys. Among the hardy adventurers 
who descended the Ohio this year and penetrated 
to the interior of Kentucky by the river of that 
name, was James Harrod, who led a party of 
Virginians from the shores of the Monongahela. 
He disembarked at a point still kno^vn as 
" Harrod's Landing," and, crossing the country 



90 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

in a direction nearly west, paused in the midst of 
a beautiful and fertile region, and built the first 
log-cabin ever erected in Kentucky, on or near 
the site of the present town of Harrodsburg. 
This was in the spring, or early part of the sum- 
mer, of 1774 * 

The high-wrought descriptions of the country 
northwest of the Laurel Eidge, which were 
given by Daniel Boone upon his return to North 
Carolina after his first long visit to Kentucky, cir- 
culated with great rapidity throughout the entire 
State, exciting the avarice of speculators and in- 
flaming the imaginations of neai'ly all classes of 
people. The organization of several companies, 
for the purpose of pushing adventui'e in the new 
regions and acquiring rights to land, was imme- 
diately attempted ; but that which commenced 
under the auspices of Colonel Richard Henderson 
a gentleman of education and means, soon en- 
gaged public attention by the extent and bold- 
ness of its scheme, and the energy of its move- 
ments ; and either frightened from their purpose, 
or attracted to its own ranks, the principal of 

* Gallagher. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 91 

those individuals wlio had at first been active 
in endeavoring to f oim other associations. 

The whole of that vast extent of country lying 
within the natural boundaries constituted by 
the Ohio, Kentucky, and Cumberland rivers, was 
at this time claimed by a portion of the Cherokee 
Indians, who resided within the limits of North 
Carolina ; and the scheme of Henderson's com- 
pany was nothing less than to take possession of 
this immense territory, under color of a purchase 
from those Indians, which they intended to 
make, and the preliminary negotiations for 
which were opened with the Cherokees, through 
the agency of Daniel Boone, as soon as the com- 
pany was fully organized. Boone's mission to 
the Indians having been attended with complete 
success, and the result thereof being conveyed to 
the company. Colonel Henderson at once started 
for Fort Wataga, on a branch of the Holston 
River, fully authorized to effect the purchase ; 
and here, on the 17th of March, 1775, he met 
the Indians in solemn council, delivered them a 
satisfactory consideration in merchandise, and 
received a deed signed by their head chiefs. 



92 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

The purchase made, the next important step 
was to take possession of the territory thus ac- 
quired. The proprietors were not slow to do 
this, but immediately collected a small company 
of brave and hardy men, which they sent into 
Kentucky, under the direction of Daniel Boone, 
to open a road from the Holston to the Ken- 
tucky Eiver, and erect a Station at the mouth 
of Otter Creek upon this latter. 

After a laborious and hazardous march 
through the wilderness, during which foui' men 
were killed, and five others wounded, by trail- 
ing and skulking parties of hostile Indians, 
Boone and his company reached the banks of 
the Kentucky on the fii'st of April, and descend- 
ing this some fifteen miles, encamped upon the 
spot where Boonesborough now stands. Here 
the bushes were at once cut down, the ground 
leveled, the nearest trees felled, the foundations 
laid for a fort, and the first settlement of Ken- 
tucky commenced. 

Perhaps the reader would like to see Boone's 
own account of these proceedings. Here is the 
passage where he mentions it in his autobi- 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 98 

ography. He lias just been speaking of Gov- 
ernor Dunmore's war against the Shawanese 
Indians : " After the conclusion of which, he 
says, the militia was discharged from each gar- 
rison, and I being relieved from my post, was 
solicited by a number of North Carolina gentle- 
men, that were about purchasing the lands lying 
on the south side of Kentucky River from the 
Cherokee Indians, to attend their treaty at 
"Wataga, in March, 1775, to negotiate with 
them, and mention the boundaries of the pur- 
chase. This I accepted ; and at the request of 
the same gentlemen, undertook to mark out a 
road in the best passage through the mldemess 
to Kentucky with such assistance as I thought 
necessary to employ for such an important un- 
dertaking ? 

" I soon began this work, having collected a 
number of enterprising men, well armed. We 
proceeded with all possible expedition until we 
came wdthin fifteen miles of where Boones- 
borough now stands, and where we were fired 
upon by a party of Indians, that killed two 
and wounded two of our number ; yet, although 



94 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

surprised and taken at a disadvantage, we stood 
our ground. This was on the twentieth of 
March, 1775. Three days after we were iired 
upon again, and had two men killed and three 
wounded. Afterward we proceeded on to Ken- 
tucky Eiver without opposition, and on the 
fifth day of April began to erect the fort of 
Boonesborough at a salt-lick, about sixty yaids 
from the river, on the south side." 

" On the fourth day, the Indians killed one 
of our men. We were busily engaged in build- 
ing the fort, until the fouii:eenth day of June 
following, without any further opposition from 
the Indians." 

In addition to this account by Captain Boone, 
we have another in a sort of official report made 
by him to Colonj©l Richard Henderson, the head 
of the company in whose service Boone was 
then employed. It is cited by Peck in his Life 
of Boone as follows : 

''April 15th, 1775. 

" Dear Colonel : After my compliments to 
you, I shall acquaint you with our misfortune. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 95 

On March the 25th a party of Indians fired on 
my company about half an hour before day, and 
killed Mr. Twitty and his negro, and wounded 
Mr. Walker very deeply but I hope he will 
recover. 

" On March the 28th, as we were hunting for 
provisions, we found Samuel Tate's son, who 
gave us an account that the Indians fired on 
their camp on the 27th day. My brother and 
I went down and found two men killed and 
scalped, Thomas McDowell and Jeremiah Mc- 
Peters. I have sent a man down to all the 
lower companies in order to gather them all to 
the mouth of Otter Creek. My advice to you, 
sir, is to come or send as soon as possible. Youi* 
company is desired greatly, for the people are 
very uneasy, but are willing to stay and ventui'e 
their lives with you, and now is the time to 
flustrate their (the Indians) intentions, and 
keep the country whilst we are in it. If we 
give way to them now, it will ever be the case, 
This day we start from the battle-ground for 
the mouth of Otter Creek, where we shall im- 
mediately erect a fort which will be done before 



96 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

y ou can come or send ; then we can send ten 
men to meet you if you send for them. 
" I am, sir, your most obedient, 

"Daniel Boone. 

" N. B. — We stood on the ground and guard- 
ed our baggage till day, and lost nothing. We 
have about fifteen miles to Cantuck at Otter 
Creek." 

Colonel Henderson was one of the most 
remarkable men of his time. He was born in 
Hanover County, Virginia, April 20th, 1735, the 
same year with Boone. He studied law, and was 
appointed judge of the Superior Court of North 
Carolina under the Colonial Government. The 
troubled times of the Regulators shut up the 
courts of justice. In 1774 he engaged in his 
grand scheme of founding the republic of Tran- 
sylvania, and united with him John Williams, 
Leonard Hendly Bullock, of Granville ; William 
Johnston, James Hogg, Thomas Hart, John 
Lutterell, Nathaniel Hart, and Da\dd Hart, of 
Orange County, in the company which made 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 97 

the purchase of the immense tract of lands above 
referred to. 

The company took possession of the lands on 
the 20th of April, 1775 ; the Indians appointing 
an agent to deliver them according to law. 

The Governor of North Carolina, Martin, 
issued his proclamation in 1775, declaring this 
purchase illegal. The State subsequently 
granted 200,000 acres to the company in lieu of 
this. 

The State of Virginia declared the same, but 
granted the company a remuneration of 200,000 
acres, bounded by the Ohio and Green rivers. 
The State of Tennessee claimed the lands, but 
made a similar grant to the company in Powell's 
Valley. Thus, though the original scheme of 
founding an independent republic failed, the 
company made their fortunes by the speculation. 
Henderson died at his seat in Granville, January 
30, 1785, universally beloved and respected. 

What makes Henderson and his company 
particularly interesting to the admirers of 
Daniel Boone is, the strong probability that the 
purchase of the Cherokees was made on his 



98 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

representation and by his advice. This is the 
opinion of Judge Hall and of Mr. Peck, who also 
believe that Boone was already in the service of 
Henderson when he made his long journey to 
Kentucky. " This theory," says Mr. Peck, " ex- 
plains why his brother, Squire Boone, came out 
with supplies, and why they examined the 
country so fully and particularly between the 
Kentucky and Cumberland rivers." 



CHAPTER IX. 

Description of the Old Fort at Boonesborough— Usual meth- 
ods of fortification against the Indians — Arrival of more 
settlers at Boonesborough— Captain Boone returns to the 
Clinch River to bring out his family — He enlists new emi- 
grants and starts for Kentucky— Reinforced by a large 
party at Powell's Valley— Arrival at Boonesborough— Ar- 
rival of many new settlers at Boonesborough and Harrod's 
settlement— Arrival of Kenton, Floyd, the McAfees, and 
other distinguished persons— Arrival of Colonel Richard 
Callaway. 

As the old fort at Boonesborough became so 
celebrated in the Indian wars which followed 
its erection, our readers may be curious to know 
what sort of structure it was. We have ac- 
cordingly copied from a print in Collins' His- 
torical Sketches of Kentucky a view of the fort, 
from a drawing made by Colonel Henderson 
himself, and the following description : " It was 
situated adjacent to the river, with one of the 
angles resting on its bank near the water, and 

extending from it in the form of a parallelo- 

99 

LoFC. 



100 '^^^^ ^^ DANIEL BOONE. 

gram. The length of the fort, allowing twenty 
feet for each cabin and opening, must have been 
about two hundred and sixty and the breadth 
one hundi^ed and fifty feet. In a few days after 
the work was commenced, one of the men was 
killed by the Indians." The houses, being built 
of hewn logs, were bullet-proof. They were of 
a square form, and one of them projected from 
each corner, being connected by stockades. The 
remaining space on the four sides, as will be 
seen by the engraving, was filled up with cabins 
erected of rough logs, placed close together. 
The gates were on opposite sides, made of thick 
slabs of timber, and hung on wooden hinges. 
This was in accordance with the fashion of the 
day. 

" A fort, in those rude military times," says 
Butler,* " consisted of pieces of timber sharp- 
ened at the end, and firmly lodged in the 
ground: rows of these pickets enclosed the 
desired space, which embraced the cabins of the 
inhabitants. A block-house or more, of su- 
perior care and strength, commanding the sides 

* History of Kentucky, 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 101 

of the fort, with or without a ditch, completed 
the fortifications or Stations, as they were called. 
Generally the sides of the interior cabins formed 
the sides of the fort. Slight as this advance 
was in the art of war, it was more than suffi- 
cient against attacks of small arms in the hands 
of such desultory warriors as their irregular 
supply of provisions necessarily rendered the 
Indians. Such was the nature of the military 
structures of the provision against their enemies. 
They were ever more formidable in the cane- 
brakes and in the woods than before even these 
imperfect fortifications." 

We have seen in Boone's own account that 
the fort at Boonesborough was completed on 
the 14th of June, 1774. The buildings neces- 
sary for the accommodation aud safety of the 
little colony, and of the relatives and friends by 
whom they expected to be joined during the 
summer and fall, were completed about this 
time. Colonel Henderson, Mr. John Luttrell, 
and Mr. Nathaniel Hart, three of the proprie- 
tors, arrived at the station, which was now 
named Boonesborough, in compliment to the 



102 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

intrepid pioneer. These gentlemen brought 
out with them between thirty and forty new 
settlers, a goodly number of pack-horses, and 
some of the necessaries of civilized life ; and the 
Station, upon which various improvements were 
soon made, at once became quite a bustling, 
life-like, important military place. Much 
pleased with the manner in which he had com- 
menced the settlement of a new commonwealth, 
and laid the foundations of what he doubted 
not was soon to become a great city, Boone 
took a part of his men and returned to the set- 
tlement on Clinch Eiver, for the purpose of 
setting an example to others by moving out his 
own family. 

The daring pioneer was now in high spirits, 
and more than ever enraptured with the deep 
forests and rich plains of Kentucky. He 
sounded their praises without intermission 
among the settlers on Clinch River, and soon 
induced a number of persons to agree to accom- 
pany him on his return to Boonesborough. He 
then went about making his domestic arrange- 
ments, for a final removal to Kentucky, with 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 103 

great energy ; and these being soon completed, 
in September or October he turned Ms back 
upon his old home forever, and started with his 
family and a few followers toward that which 
his unsurpassed daring and rude skill had pre- 
pared for them in a new land. In Powell's 
Valley he found Hugh McGary, Richard Hogan, 
and Thomas Denton, with their families and 
followers, awaiting hi s arri v al. His companions, 
as now increased, amounted to twenty -six men, 
four women, and four or ^ve boys and girls, 
perhaps half -grown ; and placing himself at the 
head of this interesting little colony, he proudly 
led it through the Cumberland Gap into the 
wilderness beyond, where it was destined to be 
the germ of a great State. 

When this party had arrived at the head of 
Dick's River, McGary, Denton, and Hogan, with 
their families and a few followers, separated 
themselves from the rest, and struck through 
the forest for the spot where Harrod and his 
Monongahelians had built their cabin the year 
before. Boone, with the main body of the party, 
continued his original course, and in due time 



104 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

arrived safely at Boonesborough ; "and Mrs. 
Boone and her daughter," it is always recorded 
with an air of pleasant exultation by the admirers 
of the old pioneer, "were the earliest white 
women in that region, and the first of their sex 
and color that ever stood upon the banks of the 
wild and beautiful Kentucky." 

During the latter part of the year 1775, a 
great many adventurers and surveyors, princi- 
pally from Virginia and North Carolina, made 
their appearance in Kentucky ; and for all such 
Boonesborough was a place of general rendez- 
vous. Some united themselves to Boone's col- 
ony, and remained permanently at his Station : 
others clustered around Harrod's Old Cabin, 
and the Fort which had by this time been erected 
by Logan, and made "improvements" in the 
vicinity of each ; but most of them returned to 
their several homes after having made such 
locations and surveys as they thought proper. 
Among those by whom Boone was visited in 
the course of this year were several men who 
have subsequently rendered very important 
services in the settlement of the West, and at- 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 105 

tained great and deserved celebrity : such were 
Simon Kenton, John Floyd, the four brothers 
McAfee, and others. A tolerably good road, 
sufficient for the passage of pack-horses in single 
file, had been opened from the settlements on 
the Holston to Boonesborough, by the party 
which Boone led out early in the following 
spring, and this now became the thoroughfare 
for other adventurei^s, a number of whom re- 
moved their families from North Carolina to 
Kentucky, and settled at Boonesborough, dur- 
ing tlie fall and winter of this year. Colonel 
Richard Callaway was one of these, and there 
were others of equal respectability. 



CHAPTER X. 

Disturbed state of the country in 1775— Breaking out of the 
Revolutionary war — Exposed situation of the Kentucky 
settlements— Hostility of the Indians excited by the Brit- 
ish — First political convention in the West — Capture of 
Boone's daughter and the daughters of Colonel Callaway by 
the Indians — Their rescue by a party led by Boone and Cal- 
laway — Increased caution of the colonists at Boonesborough 
— Alarm and desertion of the Colonies in the West by land 
speculators and other adventurers — A reinforcement of 
forty-five men from North Carolina arrive at Boones- 
borough— Indian attack on Boonesborough in April— An- 
other attack in July— Attack on Logan's Fort, and siege- 
Attack on Harrodsburg. 

The reader will not fail to remark that the 
period at which Daniel Boone commenced the 
settlement of Kentucky was the most eventful 
one in the history of our country. In the year 
1775 hostilities between Great Britain and her 
American Colonies commenced at Lexington 
and Concord, and the whole country was 
mustering in arms at the time when Boone and 
the other Western emigrants were forming settle- 
ments four hundred miles beyond the frontiers 
106 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 107 

of Virginia and the Carolinas. Encouraged by 
the treaty of Lord Dunmore vnth the Indians 
in 1774, and knowing the Indian titles to the 
lands they were occupying to have been extin- 
guished, they naturally counted on an unmolested 
possession of the region they were settling. 
But in this expectation they were sorely disap- 
pointed. The English officers and agents in 
the Northwest were indefatigable in stimulating 
the Indians to attack the American Colonists in 
every quarter. They supplied them with arms 
and ammunition, bribed them with money, and 
aided and encouraged them to attack the feeble 
settlements in Kentucky and Tennessee. But 
Providence overruled these circumstances for 
the benefit of the Western countr^^ "The 
settlement of Kentucky led to the conquest of 
the British posts in Illinois and Indiana, in 
1778, and eventually threw the wide valleys 
of the "West under control of the American 
Union." * 

The settlers in Kentucky in 1775 were still 
acting under the belief that the claims purchased 
♦ Peck. " Life of Daniel Boone." 



108 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

by Henderson and Company from the Cherokees 
were valid, and tliat " the Proprietors of the 
Colony of Transylvania " were really founding 
a political State. Under this impression they 
took leases from the Company, and in the course 
of the year, eighteen delegates assembled in 
convention at Boonesborough, and acknowl- 
edged the Company as lawful proprietors, " es- 
tablished courts of justice, and rules for proceed- 
ing therein ; also a militia law, a law for the 
preservation of game, and for appointing civil 
and militia officers." * This was the first po- 
litical convention ever held in the Western 
Valley for the formation of a free government.f 
The winter and spring of 1776 J were passed 
by the little colony of Boonesborough in hunt- 
ing, fishing, clearing the lands iromediately con- 
tiguous to the station, and putting in a crop of 
corn. The colonists were molested but once by 

* Butler. " History of Kentucky." 

f Peck. " Life of Daniel Boone." 

X Mr. Peck mentions the spring of 1776, as the date of the 
arrival at Boonesborough of Colonel Richard Callaway, and 
an intimate friend of Boone, with his family, and the family 
of Benjamin Logan, who had returned for them the preced- 
ing autumn. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 109 

their enemies during tlie winter, when one man 
was killed by a small band of marauding 
Indians, who suddenly appeared in the vicinity, 
and as suddenly departed. 

In the middle summer months, an incident of 
a thrilling character occurred, which cast a deep 
but only momentary shadow upon the little 
society of Boonesborough. This was the cap- 
ture, by some skulking Indians belonging to a 
numerous band who were now prowling through 
the woods and brakes of Kentucky, and occa- 
sionally approaching the settlements for the 
purpose of plunder, of three young females, 
members of the families of Boone and Callaway. 

This incident, which has been taken as the 
groundwork of two or three Western fictions, 
and also had thrown aroimd it all the warm 
coloring of romance, by writers professing to 
deal only with the authentic, is thus briefly 
related in the papers of Colonel John Floyd, as 
quoted by Mr. Butler : 

" On the 7th of July, 1776, the Indians took 
out of a canoe which was in the river, within 
sight of Boonesborough, Miss Betsey Callaway, 



110 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

her sister Frances, and a daughter of Daniel 
Boone. The last two were about thirteen or 
fourteen years of age, and the other grown. 

" The affair happened late in the afternoon, 
and the spoilers left the canoe on the opposite 
side of the river from us, which prevented our 
getting over for some time to pursue them. Next 
morning by daylight we were on the track, but 
found they had totally prevented our following 
them by walking some distance apart through 
the thickest cane they could find. We observ^ed 
their course, however, and on which side they 
had left their sign, and traveled upward of thirty 
miles. "We then imagined that they would be less 
cautious in traveling, and made a turn in order to 
cross their trace, and had gone but a few miles 
before we found their tracks in a buffalo-path. 

"Pursuing this for the distance of about 
ten miles, we overtook them just as they were 
kindling a fire to cook. Our study had been 
more to get the prisoners without giving their 
captors time to murder them after they should 
discover us, than to kill the Indians. 

" We discovered each other nearly at the same 




As Betsy Callaway and her sister Frances and a daughter of Boone werd 
paddling about in the canoe an Indian sprang in and captured them.— Page 111. 

Daniel Boone. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. HI 

time. Four of our party fired, and then all 
rushed upon them, which prevented their 
carrying anything away except one shot-gun 
without any ammunition. Mr. Boone and my- 
self had a pretty fair shot, just as they began 
to move off. I am well convinced I shot one 
through ; the one he shot dropped his gun, 
mine had none. 

"The place was very thick with cane, and 
being so much elated on recovering the three 
little broken-hearted girls, prevented our mak- 
ing any further search. We sent them off 
without moccasins, and not one of them with 
so much as a knife or a tomahawk." 

Although the people of the little colony of 
Boonesborough were not aware of the fact at 
the time, the marauding Indians who thus cap- 
tured Miss Boone and the Misses Callaway, as 
they were amusing themselves by paddling 
about the foot of the rock in the canoe, were 
one of the many scouting parties of Indians 
who were scattered about watching all the dif- 
ferent settlements in Kentucky, and preparing 
to attack them. The incident of the capture of 



112 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

tlie girls spread an alarm, and guards were 
stationed to defend the hands who were engaged 
in cultivating the ground. 

Toward autumn the alarm of Indian hostili- 
ties, and the knowledge that war was raging 
throughout the Colonies east of the mountains, 
excited so much alarm, that some three hun- 
dred land speculators and other adventurers 
deserted the Western country and returned to 
their old homes.* 

With the exception of the capture of the 
young girls mentioned above, no incident is re- 
corded as having disturbed the tranquillity of 
Boonesborough during the year 1776. An 
occasional immigrant added a new member to 
its little society, who assisted in the labors of 
the hardy colonists on the surrounding grounds. 
But its numbers received no considerable in- 
crease till the following summer, when (25th 
July, 1777) a party of immigrants from North 
Carolina, consisting of forty-five men, arrived in 
the country, and took up their first abode in 
the wilderness at Boonesborough. 

*Peck. 



./^ 



. jf LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 113 

This was a fortunate circumstance for that 
Station and great cause of rejoicing among all 
the settlements, for there were none of them 
that had not been much molested by the In- 
dians since the opening of spring, and one or 
two of them had undergone long and regular 
Indian sieges. 

Boonesborough had been surrounded by 
about one hundred of the enemy, as early as 
the middle of April, 1777, and fiercely attacked. 
But the Indians were so warmly received by 
the garrison on this occasion, that they in a very 
little time withdrew, having killed one of the 
settlers and wounded four others. Their own 
loss could not be ascertained. 

Increased to two hundred warriors, this party 
had returned to the attack of Boonesborough on 
the fourth of July."'^ On the present occasion, 
having sent detachments to alarm and annoy 
the neighboring settlements, in order that no 
reinforcements should be sent to Boonesborough, 
the Indians encamped about the place, with the 
object of attempting its reduction by a regular 

* Gallagher. 



114 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

siege. After a close and \dgorous attack for two 
days and nights, in whicli they succeeded in 
killing but one man and wounding four others, 
the Indians, losing all hope of success, suddenly, 
and with great clamor, raised the siege, and 
disappeared in the adjacent forest. Their own 
loss was seven warriors, whose fall was noted 
from the fort. 

After this attack, Boonesborough was dis- 
turbed no more by the Indians during the year. 
Had it been after the arrival of the immigrants 
above referred to, it would, in all probability, 
have taught its indefatigable enemies a lesson 
such as they had never then received at the 
hands of the Kentuckians. 

But notwithstanding these two considerable 
attacks, and the " signs " of Indians in the sur- 
rounding forests for the whole summer, the men 
continued to clear the lands adjacent to the 
Station, and to cultivate com and garden vege- 
tables, some always keeping a vigilant look-out 
while the others labored. For supplies of meat 
they depended upon the forests, each of the men 
taking his turn as a hunter, at great hazard. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 115 

Meantime, the other settlements in Kentucky 
had suffered attacks from the Indians. Logan's 
Fort was invested by a force of one hundred 
Indians on the 20th of May, 1777, and after 
sustaining a vigorous siege for several days, was 
finally relieved by the timely arrival of a rein- 
forcement commanded by Colonel Bowman. 
On the 7th of March, 1777, the fort of Harrods- 
burg, then called HaiTodstown, was assailed by 
a body of Indians, but they were speedily driven 
off, one of their number being killed. The 
whites had four men wounded, one of whom 
afterward died of his wounds. 



CHAPTER XL 

Arrival of George Rogers Clark in Kentucky — Anecdote of 
his conversation with Eay — Clark and Jones chosen as del- 
egates for the Colonies to the Virginia Legislature— Clark's 
important services in obtaining a political organization for 
Kentucky, and an abundant supply of gunpowder from the 
government of Virginia — Great labor and difficulty in 
bringing the powder to Harrodstown — Clark's expedition 
against Kaskaskias— Surprise and capture of their fort- 
Perilous and difficult march to Vincennes — Surprise and 
capture of that place — Extension of the Virginian settle- 
ments—Erection of Fort Jefferson. 

Among the most celebrated pioneers of the 
West was General George Rogers Clark, who, 
at the time we are now writing of, bore the 
rank of Major. Anxious for the protection of 
the Western settlements, he was already plan- 
ning his celebrated conquest of the British posts 
in the Northwest. 

He first came to Kentucky in 1775 and pene- 
trated to Harrodsburg, which had been reoc- 
cupied by Colonel Harrod. In this visit, from 
his well-known and commanding talents, he 

was voluntarily placed in command of the ir- 
116 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 117 

regular troops then in Kentucky, In the fall 
he returned to Virginia, and came back again 
to Kentucky in 1776. Mr. Butler relates the 
following anecdote, received from the lips of 
General Ray, as having occurred mth General 
Clark upon his second visit : " I had come 
down," said General Kay, " to where I now live 
(about four miles north of Harrodsburg), to 
turn some horses in the range. I had killed 
a small blue- wing duck that was feeding in my 
spring, and had roasted it nicely on the brow of 
the hill, about twenty steps east of my house. 
After having taken it oif to cool, I was much 
surprised on being suddenly accosted by a fine 
soldierly-looking man, who exclaimed, ' How do 
you do, my little fellow ? What is your name ? 
Ain't you afraid of being in the woods by your- 
self ? ' On satisfying his inquiiies, I invited 
the traveler to partake of my duck, which he 
did, without leaving me a bone to pick, his ap- 
petite was so keen, though he should have been 
welcome to all the game I could have killed, 
when I afterward became acquainted with his 
noble and gallant soul." After satisfying his 



118 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. i 

questions, he inquired of the stranger his own 
name and business in this remote region. " My 
name is Clark," he answered, " and I have come 
out to see what you brave fellows are doing in 
Kentucky, and to lend you a helping hand if 
necessary." General Kay, then a boy of sixteen, 
conducted Clark to Harrodsburg, where he spent 
his time in observation on the condition and 
prospects of the country, natural to his compre- 
hensive mind, and assisting at every oppor- 
tunity in its defense. 

At a general meeting of the settlers at Har- 
rodstown, on the 6th of June, 1775, General 
George Rogers Clark and Gabriel John Jones 
were chosen to represent them in the Assembly 
of Virginia. 

This, however, was not precisely the thing 
contemplated by Clark."^ He wished that the 
people should appoint agents^ with general 
powers to negotiate vdth the government of 
Virginia, and in the event that that common- 
wealth should refuse to recognize the colonists 
as within its Jurisdiction and under its protec- 
*Ck)llins. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 119 

tion, he proposed to employ the lands of the 
country as a fund to obtain settlers and establish 
an independent State. The election had, how- 
ever, gone too far to change its object when Clark 
arrived at Harrodstown, and the gentlemen 
elected, although aware that the choice could 
give them no seat in the Legislature, proceeded 
to Williamsburg, at that time the seat of govern- 
ment. After suffering the most severe priva- 
tions in their journey through the wilderness, 
the delegates found, on their arrival in Virginia, 
that the Legislature had adjourned, whereupon 
Jones directed his steps to the settlements on 
the Holston, and left Clark to attend to the 
Kentucky mission alone. 

He immediately waited on Governor Henry, 
then lying sick at his residence in Hanover 
County, to whom he stated the objects of his 
journey. These meeting the approbation of the 
governor, he gave Clark a letter to the Execu- 
tive Council of the State. With this letter in 
his hand he appeared before the council, and 
after acquainting them fully with the condition 
and circumstances of the colony, he made ap- 



120 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

plication for five hundred- weight of gunpowder 
for the defense of the various stations. But 
with every disposition to assist and promote 
the growth of these remote and infant settle- 
ments, the council felt itself restrained, by the 
uncertain and indefinite state of the relations 
existing between the colonists and the State of 
Virginia, from complying fully with his de- 
mand. The Kentuckians had not yet been 
recognized by the Legislature as citizens, and 
the proprietary claimants, Henderson & Co. 
were at this time exerting themselves to obtain 
from Virginia a relinquishment of her juris- 
diction over the new territory. The council, 
therefore, could only afford to lend the gun- 
powder to the colonists as friends^ not give it 
to them B.^ fellow-citizen^.^ 

At the same time, they required Clark to be 
personally responsible for its value, in the event 
the Legislature should refuse to recognize the 
Kentuckians as citizens, and in the meantime to 
defray the expense of its conveyance to Ken- 
tucky. Upon these terms he did not feel at 

♦OoUins. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 121 

liberty to accept the proffered assistance. He 
represented to the Council, that the emissaries 
of the British were employing every means to 
engage the Indians in the war ; that the people 
in the remote and exposed Stations of Kentucky 
might be exterminated for the want of a supply 
which he, a private individual, had, at so much 
hazard and hardship, sought for their relief, and 
that, when this frontier bulwark was thus de- 
stroyed, the fury of the savages would burst like 
a tempest upon the heads of their own citizens. 

To these representations, however, the Council 
remained inexorable; the sympathy for the 
frontier settlers was deep, but the assistance 
already offered was a stretch of power, and they 
could go no further. The keeper of the public 
magazine was directed to deliver the powder to 
Clark ; but having long reflected on the situa- 
tion, prospects, and resources of the new country, 
his resolution to reject the assistance, on the 
proposed conditions, was made before he left the 
Council chamber. 

He determined to repair to Kentucky, as he 
had at first contemplated, to exert the resources 



122 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

of the country for tlie formation of an Iridepefn- 
dent State. He accordingly returned the order of 
the Council in a letter, setting forth his reasons 
for declining to accept their powder on these 
terms, and intimating his design of applying for 
assistance elsewhere, adding "that a country 
which was not worth defending was not worth 
claiming." On the receipt of this letter the 
Council recalled Clark to their presence, and an 
order was passed on the 23d of August, 1776, 
for the transmission of the gunpowder to Pitts- 
bui-g, to be there delivered to Clark, or his order, 
for the use of the people of Kentucky. This 
was the first act in that long and affectionate in- 
terchange of good offices which subsisted be- 
tween Kentucky and her parent State for so 
many years ; and obvious as the reflection is, it 
may not be omitted, that on the successful ter- 
mination of this negotiation hung the connection 
between Virginia and the splendid domain she 
afterward acquired west of the Alleghany Moun- 
tains. 

At the fall session of the Legislature of 
Virginia, Messrs. Jones and Clark laid the Ken- 






LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 123 

tucky memorial before that body. They were, 
of course, not admitted to seats, though late, 
in the session they obtained, in opposition 
to the exertions of Colonels Henderson and 
Campbell, the formation of the territory, 
which now comprises the present State of that 
name, into the County of Kentucky. The first 
efficient political organization of Kentucky was 
thus obtained through the sagacity, influence, 
and exertions of George Rogers Clark, who must 
be ranked as the earliest founder of that com- 
monwealth. This act of the Virginia Legisla- 
ture first gave it form and a political existence, 
and entitled it, under the constitution of Vir- 
ginia, to a representation in the Assembly, as 
well as to a judicial and military establishment. 
Having obtained these important advantages 
from their mission, they received the intelligence 
that the powder was still at Pittsburg, and they 
determined to take that point in their route home 
and carry it with them. The country around 
Pittsburg swarmed with Indians, evidently 
hostile to the whites, who would no doubt seek 
to interrupt their voyage. 



124 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

These circumstances created a necessity for the 
utmost caution as well as expedition in their 
movements, and they accordingly hastily em- 
barked on the Ohio with only seven boatmen. 
They were hotly pursued the whole way by 
Indians, but succeeded in keeping in advance 
until they arrived at the mouth of Limestone 
Creek, at the spot where the city of Maysville 
now stands. They ascended this creek a short 
distance with their boat, and concealed their 
cargo at different places in the woods along 
its banks. They then turned their boat adrift, 
and directed theii^ course to Harrodstown, in- 
tending to return with a sufficient escort to in- 
sure the safe transportation of the powder to its 
destination. This in a short time was success- 
fully effected, and the colonists were thus abun- 
dantly supplied with the means of defense against 
the fierce enemies who beset them on all sides.* 

It was fortunate for Virginia, says a recent 
writer, f that she had at this time, on her 
western borders, an individual of rare military 



* Collins. " Historical Sketches of Kentucky.' 
f Howe. ^'Historical Collections of Virginia.' 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 125 

genius, in the person of Colonel George Rogers 
Clark, " tlie Hannibal of the West^^'' wlio not only 
saved lier back settlements from Indian fury, but 
planted her standard far beyond the Ohio. The 
Governor of the Canadian settlements in the 
Illinois country, by every possible method, insti- 
gated the Indians to annoy the frontier. 

Virginia placed a small force of about 250 
men under Clark, who, descending the Ohio, 
hid their boats, and marched northwardly, with 
their provisions on their backs. These being 
consumed, they subsisted for two days on roots, 
and, in a state of famine, appeared before Kas- 
kaskias, unseen and unheard. 

At midnight they surprised and took the 
town and fort, which had resisted a much larger 
force ; then seizing the golden moment, sent a 
detachment who with equal success surprised 
thi'ee other towns. Rocheblave, the obnoxious 
Governor, was sent to Virginia. On his person 
were found written instructions from Quebec 
to excite the Indians to hostilities, and reward 
them for the scalps of the Americans. 

The settlers transferred their allegiance to 



126 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

Virginia, and she, as the territory belonged to 
her by conquest and charter, in the autumnal 
session of 1778 erected it into a county to be 
called Illinois. Insulated in the heart of the 
Indian country, in the midst of the most fero- 
cious tribes, few men but Clark could have pre- 
served this acquisition. 

Hamilton, the Grovemor of Detroit, a bold and 
tyrannical personage, determined, with an over- 
whelming force of British and Indians, to pene- 
trate up the Ohio to Fort Pitt to sweep all the 
principal settlements in his way, and besiege 
Kaskaskias. Clark despaired of keeping pos- 
session of the country, but he resolved to pre- 
serve this post, or die in its defense. While he 
was strengthening the fortifications, he received 
information that Hamilton, who was at Fort St. 
Vincent (Vincennes), had weakened his force 
by sending some Indians against the frontiers. 

This information, to the genius of Clark, dis- 
closed, with the rapidity of an electric flash, 
not only safety but new glory. To resolve to 
attack Hamilton before he could collect the 
Indians was the work of a moment — the only 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 127 

hope of saving the country. With a band of 
150 gallant and hardy comrades, he marched 
across the country. It was in February, 1779. 
When within nine miles of the enemy, it took 
these intrepid men ^ve days to cross the drowned 
lands of the Wabash, having often to wade up 
to their breasts in water. Had not the weather 
been remarkably mild, they must have 
perished. 

On the evening of the 23d, they landed in 
sight of the fort, before the enemy knew any- 
thing of their approach. After a siege of eigh- 
teen hours it surrendered, without the loss of a 
man to the besiegers. The Governor was sent 
prisoner to Williamsburg, and considerable 
stores fell into the possession of the conqueror. 

Other auspicious circumstances crowned this 
result. Clark, intercepting a convoy from 
Canada, on their way to this post, took the mail, 
forty prisoners, and goods to the value of 
$45,000 ; and to crown all, his express from Vir- 
ginia arrived with the thanks of the Assembly 
to him and his gallant band for their reduction 
of the country about Kaskaskias. This year 



128 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

Virginia extended her western establishments 
througli the agency of Colonel Clark, and had 
several fortifications erected, among which was 
Fort JefEerson, on the Mississppi. * 

•Howe. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Scarcity of salt in Boonesborough— Boone goes to Blue Licks 
to make salt, and is captured by the Indians — Taken to 
Cliillicothe — Affects contentment, and deceives the Indians 
—Taken to Detroit— Kindness of the British officers to him 
— Returns to Chillicothe — Adopted into an Indian family — 
Ceremonies of adoption — Boone sees a large force of Indiana 
destined to attack Boonesborough— Escapes, and gives the 
alarm, and strengthens the fortifications at Boonesborough 
—News of delay by the Indians on account of Boone'3 
escape — Boone goes on an expedition to the Scioto — Has a 
fight with a party of Indians — Returns to Boonesborough, 
which is immediately besieged by Captain Duquesne with 
five hundred Indians— Summons to surrender — Time gained 
— Attack commenced — Brave defense — Mines and counter- 
mines — Siege raised — Boone brings his family once more 
back to Boonesborough, and resumes farming. 

While George Eogers Clark was engaged in 

his campaign against the British posts in the 

Northwest, Daniel Boone was a prisoner among 

the Indians. The people at Boonesborough 

were suffering for want of salt. It could not 

be obtained conveniently from the Atlantic 

Colonies, but it could be manufactured at a 

place called the Blue Licks, from salt water 

which abounded there, 

9 m 



130 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

i 

In January, 1778, accompanied by thirty men, 
Boone went to the Blue Licks to make salt for 
the different Stations ; and on the 7th of Feb- 
ruary following, while out hunting, he fell in 
with one hundred and two Indian warriors, on 
their march to attack Boonesborough. He in- 
stantly fled, but being upward of fifty years 
old, he was unable to outstrip the fleet young 
men who pursued him, and was a second time 
taken prisoner. As usual, he was treated with 
kindness imtil his final fate should be deter- 
mined, and was led back to the Licks, where 
his party were still encamped. Here Boone 
surrendered his whole party to the number of 
twenty-seven, upon a promise on the part of 
the Indians of life and good treatment, both 
of which conditions were faithfully observed. 
This step was apparently unnecessary ; but the 
result showed that it was a master stroke of 
policy on Boone's part. He knew the nature of 
the Indians, and foresaw that they would forth- 
with return home with their prisoners, and thus 
save Boonesborough from attack. 

Had the Indians gone on to that place, by 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 131 

showing their prisoners and threatening to put 
them to the torture, they might have obtained 
important results. But they did nothing of the 
kind. As Boone had calculated, they went 
home with their prisoners and booty. 

Captain Boone has been censured for the 
surrender of his men, which he made at his own 
capture, and at a subsequent period was tried by 
court-martial and acquitted. This was a just de- 
cision. The surrender caused the Indians to re- 
turn home with their prisoners instead of attack- 
ing Boonesboroagh, which would almost cer- 
tainly have been taken and destroyed if this 
surrender had not been made. 

Elated with their unexpected success, the 
Indians now returned at once to old Chillicothe, 
the principal town of the Shawnees, on the 
Little Miami, treating their prisoners, during a 
march of three days in very cold and inclement 
weather, as well as they fared themselves, as re- 
garded fire and provisions. Boone and his com- 
panions were kept in captivity by the Indians, 
and closely watched for several weeks, when 
the old pioneer and ten of his men were con- 



132 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

ducted to Detroit, then a British garrison, and 
all but Boone presented to the commandant, by 
whom they were all well treated. For the old 
pioneer himself, the Indians had conceived a 
particular liking ; and they stubbornly refused 
to give him up, though several gentlemen of 
Detroit were very anxious they should leave 
him, and the commandant offered to ransom him 
by a liberal sum. He was therefore compelled 
to accompany them back to Chillicothe, their 
town on the Little Miami ; which they reached 
after a march of fifteen days. 

Boone was now formally adopted as a son in 
one of the Indian families. " The forms of the 
ceremony of adoption,'' says Mr. Peck,* " were 
often severe and ludicrous. The hair of the 
head is plucked out by a painful and tedious 
operation, leaving a tuft, some three or four 
inches in diameter, on the crown for the scalp- 
lock, which is cut and dressed up with ribbons 
and feathers. The candidate is then taken into 
the river in a state of nudity, and there thor- 
oughly washed and rubbed, 'to take all his 
* " Life of Daniel Boone." 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. I35 

white blood out.' THs ablution is usually per- 
formed by females. He is then taken to the 
council-house, where the chief makes a speech, 
in which he expatiates upon the distinguished 
honors conferred on him. His head and face 
are painted in the most approved and fashion- 
able style, and the ceremony is concluded with 
a grand feast and smoking." '' 

After undergoing after this fashion what was 
not inaptly termed the Indian toilet, Boone 
was considered a regular member of the tribe, 
and by judiciously accommodating himself to 
his new condition, he rapidly won upon the 
regards of the Indians, and soon secured their 
confidence. They challenged him to a trial of 
skill at their shooting-matches — in which he took 
care not to excel them — invited him to accom- 
pany them on their hunting excursions, bestow- 
ed particular notice upon him in various ways, 
and always treated him with much consider- 
ation. As regarded merely his physical com- 
fort, Boone's situation was, at this time, rather 
enviable than otherwise ; but he felt a depress- 
ing anxiety with regard to his wife and chil- 



134 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

dren, and doubted the safety and prosperity of 
the Station, without his owoi watchfulness and 
superintendence. He therefore determined to 
escape from his captors at the earliest possible 
period, and very impatiently waited an oppor- 
tunity for accomplishing this purpose. 

Early in June a party of Indians went to the 
Scioto Licks to make salt. Boone was taken 
with them, but kept so constantly employed at 
the kettles, that he found no chance of escaping. 
Having sufficiently supplied themselves with 
the desired article, the party returned ; and at 
the Chillicothe town Boone found four hundred 
and fifty Indian warriors, armed well and painted 
in a most frightful manner, ready to march 
against Boonesborough : this was on the fifteenth 
or sixteenth of the month. 

Boone now saw the absolute necessity of es- 
caping at once, and determined to make the 
attempt without delay. He rose at the usual 
time the next morning, and went out upon 
a hunt. His object was to give his wary 
masters the slip, in such a manner as would be 
least likely to excite their suspicions, and be 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 135 

the longest in determining them upon a pur- 
suit. 

No sooner was he at such a distance from the 
town as would prevent observations of his 
movements, than he stiTick out rapidly in the 
direction of Boonesborough. So great was his 
anxiety, that he stopped not to kill anything to 
eat, but performed his journey — a distance of 
one hundred and sixty miles — in less than five 
days, upon one meal, which, before starting, he 
had concealed in his basket. On arriving at 
Boonesborough, he found the fort, as he feared 
he should, in a bad state for defense ; but his 
activity soon strengthened it, and his courage 
at once reinspired the sinking hearts of the gar- 
rison. Everything was immediately put in 
proper condition for a vigorous defense, and all 
became impatient for intelligence of the move- 
ments of the enemy. 

A few days after Boone's escape from the 
Indians, one of his fellow-prisoners succeeded 
likewise in eluding their vigilance, and made 
his way safely and expeditiously to Boones- 
borough. This man arrived at the Station at a 



136 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

time when the garrison were hourly expecting 
the appearance of the enemy, and reported that, 
on account of Boone's elopement, the Indians 
had postponed their meditated invasion of the 
settled regions for three weeks.* It was dis- 
covered, however, that they had their spies in 
the country, watching the movements of the 
different garrisons ; and this rendered the settlers 
wary and active, and gave all the Stations time 
and opportunity to strengthen themselves, and 
make every preparation for a powerful resist- 
ance of what, they could not but believe, was 
to be a long and great effort to drive them from 
the land, and utterly destroy their habita- 
tions. 

Week passed after week, but no enemy ap- 
peared. The state of anxiety and watchfulness 
in which the garrison at Boonesborough had, 
for so long a time, been kept, was becoming 
irksome, and the men were beginning to relax in 
their vigilance. This Boone observed, and it 
determined him to undertake an expedition, 
which he had been probably meditating for 

* Gallagher. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 137 

some time. On the 1st of August, therefore, 
with a company of nineteen of the brave spirits 
by whom he was surrounded, he left the fort 
with the intention of marching against and sur- 
prising one of the Indian towns on the Scioto. 
He advanced rapidly, but with great caution, 
and had reached a point within four or five 
miles of the town destined to taste of his venge- 
ance, when he met its warriors, thirty in num- 
ber, on their way to join the main Indian force, 
then on its march toward Boonesborough. 

An action immediately commenced, which 
terminated in the flight of the Indians, who lost 
one man and had two others wounded. 

Boone received no injury, but took three 
horses, and all the " plunder " of the war party. 
He then despatched two spies to the Indian 
town, who returned with the intelligence that 
it was evacuated. On the receipt of this infor- 
mation, he started for Boonesborough with all 
possible haste, hoping to reach the Station before 
the enemy, that he might give warning of their 
approach, and strengthen its numbers. He 
passed the main body of the Indians on the 



138 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

sixth day of his march, and on the seventh 
reached Boonesborough. 

On the eighth day the enemy's force marched 
up, with British colors flying, and invested the 
place. The Indian army was commanded by 
Captain Duqnesne, with eleven other Canadian 
Frenchmen and several distinguished chiefs, and 
was the most formidable force which had yet 
invaded the settlements. The commander sun> 
moned the garrison to surrender in the name of 
his Britannic Majesty." 

Boone and his men, perilous as was their situ- 
ation, received the summons without apparent 
alarm, and requested a couple of days for the 
consideration of what should be done. This 
was granted ; and Boone summoned his brave 
companions to council : hut fifty men appeared ! 
Yet these fifty, after a due consideration of the 
terms of capitulation proposed, and with the 
knowledge that they were surrounded by sav- 
age and remorseless enemies to the number of 
about fiA)e hundred^ determined, unanimously, 
to " defcfnd the fart as long as a man of them 
lived r' 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 130 

The two days having expired, Boone an- 
nounced this determination from one of the 
bastions, and thanked the British commander 
for the notice given of his intended attack, and 
the time allowed the garrison for preparing to 
defend the Station. This reply to his summons 
was entirely unexpected by Duquesne, and he 
heard it with evident disappointment. Other 
terms were immediately proposed by him, which 
" sounded so gratefully in the ears " of the gar- 
rison that Boone agreed to treat ; and, with 
eight of his companions, left the fort for this 
purpose. It was soon manifest, however, by 
the conduct of the Indians, that a snare had 
been laid for them; and escaping from their 
wily foes by a sudden effort, they re-entered the 
palisades, closed the gates, and betook them- 
selves to the bastions. 

A hot attack upon the fort now instantly 
commenced but the fire of the Indians was re- 
turned from the garrison with such unexpected 
briskness and fatal precision that the besiegers 
were compelled to fall back. They then shel- 
tered themselves behind the nearest trees and 



14:0 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

stumps and continued tlie attack with more 
caution. Losing a number of men liimself, and 
perceiving no falling off in the strength or 
the marksmanship of the garrison, Duquesne 
resorted to an expedient which promised greater 
success. 

The fort stood upon the bank of the river, 
about sixty yards from its margin ; and the 
purpose of the commander of the Indians was 
to undermine this, and blow up the garrison. 
Duquesne was pushing the mine under the fort 
with energy when his operations were discovered 
by the besieged. The miners precipitated the 
earth which they excavated into the river ; and 
Boone, perceiving that the water was muddy 
below the fort, while it was clear above, in- 
stantly divined the cause, and at once ordered 
a deep trench to be cut inside the fort, to coun- 
teract the work of the enemy. 

As the earth was dug up, it was thrown over 
the wall of the fort, in the face of the besieging 
commander. Duquesne was thus informed that 
his design had been discovered ; and being con- 
vinced of the futility of any further attempts 




The Old Fort at Boonesborough as it appeared in 1778. -Page 140. 

Daniel Boone. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 141 

of that kind lie discontinued his mining opera- 
tions, and once more renewed the attack upon the 
Station in the manner of a regular Indian siege. 
His success, however, was no better than it had 
been before ; the loss appeared to be all upon 
his side ; his stock of provisions was nearly ex- 
hausted ; having for nine days tried the bravery 
of his savage force, and tasked his own in- 
genuity to its utmost, he raised the siege, and 
abandoned the grand object of the expedi- 
tion. 

During this siege, " the most formidable," says 
Mr. Marshall, " that had ever taken place in 
Kentucky from the number of Indians, the skiU 
of the commanders, and the fierce countenances 
and savage dispositions of the warriors," only 
two men belonging to the Station were killed, 
and four others wounded. 

Duquesne lost thirty-seven men, and had 
many wounded, who, according to the invariable 
usage of the Indians, were immediately borne 
from the scene of action. 

Boonesborough was never again disturbed by 
any formidable body of Indians. New Stations 



142 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

were springing up every year between it and 
the Ohio River, and to pass beyond these 
for the purpose of striking a blow at an older 
and stronger enemy, was a piece of folly of 
which the Indians were never known to be 
guilty. 

During Boone's captivity among the Shaw- 
nees, his family, supposing that he had been 
killed, had left the Station and returned to their 
relatives and friends in North Carolina ; and as 
early in the autumn as he could well leave, the 
brave and hardy warrior started to move them 
out again to Kentucky. He returned to the 
settlement with them early the next summer, 
and set a good example to his companions by 
industriously cultivating his fanu, and volun- 
teeringhis assistance, whenever it seemed needed, 
to the many immigrants who were now pouring 
into the country, and erecting new Stations in 
the neighborhood of Boonesborough. He was 
a good as well as a great man in his sphere, 
says Mr. Gallaher (our chief authority for the 
foregoing incidents) ; and for his many and im- 
portant services in the early settlements of Ken- 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 143 

tucky, lie well deserved the title of Patriarcli 
wliich was bestowed upon him during his life, 
and all the praises that have been sung to his 
memoiy since his death * 

* W. D. Gallagher, in " Hesperian." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Captain Boone tried by court-martial — Honorabljr acquitted 
and promoted — Loses a large sum of money — His losses by 
lawsuits and disputes about land — Defeat of Colonel 
Rogers's party — Colonel Bowman's expedition to Chilli- 
cothe — Arrival near the town — Colonel Logan attacks the 
town — Ordered by Colonel Bowman to retreat — Failure of 
the expedition — Consequences to Bowman and to Logan. 

Some complaint having been made respecting 
Captain Boone's suiTender of his party at the 
Blue Licks, and other parts of his military con- 
duct, his friends. Colonel Eichard Callaway and 
Colonel Benjamin Logan, exhibited charges 
against him which occasioned his being tried by 
court-martial. This was undoubtedly done with 
a view to put an end to the calumny by dis- 
proving or explaining the charges. The result 
of the trial was an honorable acquittal, increased 
popularity of the Captain among his fellow- 
citizens, and his promotion to the rank of Major.* 

♦Peck. 
144 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. I45 

While Boone had been a prisoner among tlie 
Indians, liis wife and family, supposing Mm to 
be dead, had returned to North Carolina. In 
the autumn of 1778 he went after them to the 
house of Mrs. Boone's father on the Yadkin. 

In 1779, a commission having been opened by 
the Virginia Legislature to settle Kentucky land 
claims. Major Boone " laid out the chief of his 
little property to procure land warrants, and 
having raised about twenty thousand dollars in 
paper money, with which he intended to piu*- 
chase them, on his way from Kentucky to Rich- 
mond, he was robbed of the whole, and left 
destitute of the means of procuring more. 
This hea^^^ misfortune did not fall on himself 
alone. Large sums had been intrusted to him 
by his friends for similar purposes, and the loss 
was extensively felt." 

Boone must have suffered much anxiety in 
consequence of this affiair. Little is known re- 
specting it, excepting that it did not impair the 
confidence of his friends in his perfect integrity. 

This appears in the following extract of a 

letter from Colonel Thomas Hart, late of Lex- 
10 



146 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

ington, Kentucky, to Captain Nathaniel Hart, 
dated Grayiields, August 3d, 1780. 

" I observe wliat you say respecting our losses 
by Daniel Boone. [Boone had been robbed of 
funds in part belonging to T. and N. Hart.] I 
had heard of the misfortune soon after it hap- 
pened, but not of my being partaker before now. 
I feel for the poor people, who, perhaps, are 
to lose even their pre-emptions : but I must say, 
I feel more for Boone, whose character, I am 
told, suffers by it. Much degenerated must the 
people of this age be, when amongst them are 
to be found men to censure and blast the repu- 
tation of a person so just and upright, and in 
whose breast is a seat of virtue too pure to ad-, 
mit of a thought so base and dishonorable. I 
have known Boone in times of old, when pov- 
erty and distress had him fast by the hand ; 
and in these wretched circumstances, I have ever 
found him of a noble and generous soul, despising 
everything mean ; and therefore I will freely 
grant him a discharge for whatever sums of mine 
he might have been possessed of at the time." 

Boone's ignorance of legal proceedings, and 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 147 

his aversion to lawsuits, appear to have occa- 
sioned the loss of his real estate ; and the loose 
manner in which titles were granted, one con- 
flicting with another, occasioned similar losses 
to much more experienced and careful men at 
the same period. 

During the year 1779 the emigration to Ken- 
tucky was much greater than any previous one. 
The settlers do not seem to have been so much 
annoyed by the Indians as formerly. Yet this 
year is distinguished in the annals of Kentucky 
for the most bloody battle ever fought between 
the whites and Indians within her borders, with 
the single exception of that of the Blue Licks. 

It took place opposite to Cincinnati. Colo- 
nel Eogers had been down to New Orleans to 
procure supplies for the posts on the Upper 
Mississippi and Ohio. Having obtained them, 
he ascended these rivers until he reached the 
place mentioned above. Here he found the 
Indians in their canoes coming out of the mouth 
of the Little Miami, and crossing to the Kentucky- 
side of the Ohio. He conceived the plan of 
surprising them as they landed. The Ohio was 



148 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

very low on the Kentucky side, so that a large 
sand-bar was laid bare, extending along the 
shore. Upon this Kogers landed his men, but, 
before they could reach the spot where they ex- 
pected to attack the enemy they were them- 
selves attacked by such superior numbers that 
the issue of the contest was not doubtful for a 
single moment. Rogers and the greater part of 
his men were instantly killed. The few who 
were left fled toward the boats. But one of 
them was already in the possession of the Indi- 
ans, whose flanks were extended in advance of 
the fugitives, and the few men remaining in the 
other pushed off from shore without waiting to 
take their comrades on board. These last now 
turned around upon their pursuers, and, furiously 
charging them, a small number broke through 
their ranks and escaped to Harrodsburg. The 
loss in this most lamentable affair was about sixty 
men, very nearly equal to that at Blue Licks. 

The Kentuckians resolved to invade the In- 
dian country, and Chillicothe was selected as 
the point to feel the weight of their vengeance. 
Colonel Bowman issued a call, inviting all those 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 149 

■who were willing to accompany him in tlie ex- 
pedition to rendezvous at Harrodsburg. This 
was the manner of organizing such expeditions 
in Kentucky. An officer would in\dte volun- 
teers to participate with him in an incursion 
into the Indian country. All who joined were 
expected to submit to his direction. 

On this occasion there was no want of zeal 
among the people. Bowman's reputation as a 
soldier was good, and three hundred men were 
soon collected, among whom were Logan and 
Ilarrod, both holding the rank of captain. It 
does not appear that either Boone or Kenton 
engaged in this enterprise. Indeed, the first is 
said to have been absent in North Carolina, his 
family having returned there after his capture 
in the preceding year, supposing him to be dead. 

The expedition moved in the month of July — 
its destination well known — and Its march so well 
conducted that it approached its object without 
discovery. From this circumstance, it would 
seem that the Indians were but little apprehen- 
sive of an invasion from those who had never 
before ventured on it, and whom they were in 



150 XiTFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

the habit of invading annually ; or else so secure 
in their own courage that they feared no enemy, 
for no suspecting spy was out to foresee approach- 
ing danger. Arrived within a short distance of 
the town, night approached, and Colonel Bow- 
man halted. Here it was determined to invest 
and attack the place just before the ensuing day, 
and several dispositions were then made very 
proper for the occasion, indicating a considerable 
share of military skill and caution, which gave 
reasonable promise of a successful issue. At a 
proper hour the little army separated, after a 
movement that placed it near the town, the one 
part, under the command of Bowman in person 
— ^the other, under Captain Logan; to whom 
precise orders had been given to march, on the 
one hand, haK round the town ; while the Colo- 
nel, passing the other way, was to meet him, 
and give the signal for an assault. Logan im- 
mediately executed his orders, and the place was 
half enveloped. But he neither saw nor heard 
the commander-in-chief. Logan now ordered 
his men to conceal themselves in the grass and 
weeds, and behind such other objects as were 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 151 

present, as the day began to show itself, and he 
had not yet received the expected order to begin 
the attacli ; nor had he been able, though 
anxious, to ascertain what had intercepted or 
delayed his superior officer. The men, on shift- 
ing about for hiding-places, had alarmed one of 
the Indians' dogs, who forthwith set to barking 
with the agitation of apparent fright. This 
brought out an Indian warrior, who proceeded 
with caution on the way that the dog seemed to 
direct his own attention, and in a short time, if 
he had continued his progress, might have been 
made a prisoner ; but, at this critical moment, 
one of the party with the Colonel fired his gun ; 
which the Indian, well understanding as coming 
from an enemy, gave an instantaneous and loud 
whoop, and ran immediately to his cabin. The 
alarm was instantly spread through the town, 
and preparation made for defense. The party 
with Logan was near enough to hear the bustle 
and to see the women and children escaping to 
the cover of the woods by a ridge which ran ' 
between them and where Colonel Bowman with 
his men had halted. 



152 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

In the meantime the warriors equipped them- 
selves with their military habiliments, and re- 
paired to a strong cabin ; no doubt, designated 
in their councils for the like occurrences. By 
this time daylight had disclosed the whole scene, 
and several shots were discharged on the one 
side, and returned from the other, while some 
of Logan's men took possession of a few cabins, 
from which the Indians had retreated — or rather 
perhaps it should be said, repaired to their 
stronghold, the more effectually to defend them- 
selves. The scheme was formed by Logan, and 
adopted by his men in the cabins, of making a 
movable breastwork out of the doors and floor — 
and of pushing it forward as a battery against 
the cabin in which the Indians had taken post ; 
othei^ of them had taken shelter from the fire of 
the enemy behind stumps, or logs, or the vacant 
cabins, and were waiting orders ; when the 
Colonel finding that the Indians were on their 
defense, despatched ordei*s for a retreat. This 
order, received with astonishment, was obeyed 
with reluctance ; and what rendered it the more 
distressing, was the unavoidable exposure which 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 153 

the men must encounter in the open field, or 
prairie, which surrounded the town : for they 
were apprised that from the moment they left 
their cover, the Indians would fire on them, 
until they were beyond the reach of their balls. 
A retreat, however, was deemed necessary, and 
every man was to shift for himself. Then, 
instead of one that was orderly, commanding, or 
supported — a scene of disorder, unmilitary and 
mortifying, took place ; here a little squad would 
rush out of or break from behind a cabin — there 
individuals would rise from a log, or start up 
from a stump, and run with all speed to gain 
the neighboring wood. 

At length, after the loss of several lives, the 
remnant of the invading force was reunited, and 
the retreat continued in tolerable order, under 
the painful reflection that the expedition had 
failed, without any adequate cause being known 
This was, however, but the introduction to dis 
grace, if not of misfortune still more extraor 
dinary and distressing. The Indian warriors, 
commanded by Blackflsh, sallied from the town 
and commenced a pursuit of the discomfited in 



154 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

vaders of their forests and firesides, which they 
continued for some miles, harassing and galling 
the rear of the fugitives without being checked, 
notwithstanding the disparity of numbers, 
there not being more than thirty of the savages 
in pursuit. Bowman, finding himself thus 
pressed, at length halted his men in a low piece 
of ground covered with brush ; as if he sought 
shelter from the enemy behind or among them. 
A situation more injudiciously chosen, if chosen 
at all, cannot be easily imagined — since of all 
others it most favored the purposes of the 
Indians. In other respects the commander 
seems also to have lost his understanding — he 
gave no orders to fire — made no detachment to 
repulse the enemy, who, in a few minutes, by 
the whoops, yells, and firing, were heard on all 
sides — ^but stood as a mark to be shot at or one 
panic-struck. Some of the men fired, but with- 
out any precise object, for the Indians were 
scattered and hid by the grass and bushes. 
What would have been the final result it is dif- 
ficult to conjectiu-e, if Logan, Harrod, Bulger, 
and a few others had not mounted some of the 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 155 

pack-horses and scoured the woods, first in one 
direction, then in another; rushing on the 
Indians wherever they could find them, until 
very fortunately Blackfish was killed ; and this 
being soon known, the rest fled. It was in the 
evening when this event occurred, which being 
reported to the Colonel, he resumed his march at 
dark — ^taking for his guide a creek near at hand, 
which he pursued all night without any remark- 
able occurrence — and in quiet and safety thence 
returned home, with the loss of nine men killed 
and another wounded : having taken two Indian 
scalps : which, however, was thought a trophy 
of small renown." 

A somewhat different account is given by 
some, in which Bowman is exculpated from all 
blame. According to this, it was the vigorous 
defense of the Indians which prevented him 
from fulfilling his part of the combinations. 
Be this as it may, it is certain that Bowman lost 
reputation by the expedition; while, on the 
other hand, the conduct of Logan raised him 
still higher in the estimation of the people. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 

Invasion of Kentucky by Captain Byrd's party. He captures 
the garrisons at Ruddle's Station and Martin's Fort — Colo- 
nel Clark's invasion of the Indian country — He ravages 
the Indian towns — Adventure of Alexander McConnell— 
Skirmish at Pickaway — Result of the expedition — Boone 
goes to the Blue Licks with his brother — Attacked by the 
Indians — Boone's brother killed — Boone promoted to the 
rank of I aeutenant-Colonel — Clark's galley — Squire Boone's 
Station removed to Bear's Creek — Attack by the Indians — 
Colonel Floyd's defeat — Affair of the McAfees — Attack on 
McAfee's Station repelled — Fort Jefferson evacuated — At- 
tack on Montgomery Station — Rescue by General Logan. 

The year 1780 was distinguislied for two 
events of mucli importance : tlie invasion of 
Kentucky by the British and Indians, under 
Colonel Byrd, and General Clark's attack upon 
the Shawanee towns. The first of these was 
a severe and unexpected blow to Kentucky. 
Marshall says that the people in their eagerness 
to take up land had almost forgotten the exist- 
ence of hostilities. Fatal security, and most 

fatal with such a foe, whose enterprises were 
156 




-^=^- — -""^^ 'LOY^T^"^ -^-^rSsi 



An old stratagem used by Boone to escape the Indians.— Page 156. 

Daniel Boone. 



UFE OF DANIEL BOONE. I57 

conducted with such secrecy that their first 
announcement was their presence in the midst 
of the unprepared settlement. In fact, the care- 
lessness of the Western borderers is often un- 
accountable, and this is not the least surprising 
instance of it. 

That, they did not anticipate an attempt to 
retaliate the incursion of Bowman into the In- 
dian countiy is indeed astonishing. It was very 
fortunate for the Kentuckians that theii' ene- 
mies were as little gifted with perseverance as 
they were with vigilance. This remark is to be 
understood in a restricted sense of both par- 
ties. When once aroused to a sense of their dan- 
ger none were more readily prepared, or more 
watchful to meet it than the settlers ; and on 
the other hand, nothing could exceed the per- 
severance of the Indians in the beginning of 
their enterprises, but on the slightest success 
(not reverse) they wished to return to exhibit 
their trophies at home. Thus, on capturing 
Boone and his party, instead of pushing on and 
attacking the settlements which were thus weak- 
ened, they returned to display their prisoners. 



15S LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

The consequences were that these defects neu- 
tralized each other, and no very decisive strokes 
were made by either side. But the English 
Governor Hamilton, who had hitherto contented 
himself with stimulating the Indians to hostili- 
ties, now aroused by the daring and success of 
Clark, prepared to send a powerful expedition 
by way of retaliation, against the settlements. 
Colonel Byrd was selected to command the 
forces, which amounted to six hundred men, 
Canadians and Indians. To render them irresist- 
ible, they were supplied with two pieces of artil- 
lery. The posts on the Licking were the first 
objects of the expedition. 

In June they made their appearance before 
Ruddle's Station ; and this, it is said, was the 
first intimation that the garrison had received of 
their danger, though Butler states that the 
enemy were twelve days on their march from 
the Ohio. The incidents of the invasion are 
few. The fort at E-uddle's Station was in no 
condition to resist so powerful an enemy backed 
by artillery, the defenses being nowise superior 
to those we have before described. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 159 

They were summoned to surrender in the 
name of his Britannic Majesty, with the promise 
of protection for their lives only. What could 
they do ? The idea of resisting such a force was 
vain. The question presented itself to them 
thus : Whether they should surrender at once 
and give up their property, or enrage the In- 
dians by a fruitless resistance, and lose their 
property and lives also. The decision was 
quickly made, the post was surrendered and the 
enemy thronged in, eager for plunder. The in- 
mates of the fort were instantly seized, families 
were separated ; for each Indian caught the 
first person whom he met, and claimed him or 
her as his prisoner. Three Avho made some re- 
sistance were killed upon the spot. It was in 
vain that the settlers remonstrated with the 
British commander. He said it was impossible to 
restrain them. Tiiis doubtless was true enough, 
but he should have thought of it before he as- 
sumed the command of such a horde, and con- 
sented to lead them against weak settlements. 

The Indians demanded to be led at once 
against Martin's Fort, a post about five miles dia- 



160 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

tant. Some say that the same scene was enacted 
over here ; but another account states that so 
strongly was Colonel Byrd affected by the bar- 
barities of the Indians, that he refused to ad- 
vance further, unless they would consent to al- 
low him to take charge of all the prisoners who 
should be taken. The same account goes on to 
say that the demand was complied with, and 
that on the suiTender of Martin's Fort, this ar- 
rangement was actually made ; the Indians tak- 
ing possession of the property and the British 
of the prisoners. However this may be, the 
capture of this last-mentioned place, which was 
surrendered under the same circumstances as 
Ruddle's, was the last operation of that cam- 
paign. Some quote this as an instance of weak- 
ness ; Butler, in particular, contrasts it with the 
energy of Clark. 

The sudden retreat of the enemy inspired the 
people with joy as great as their consternation 
had been at the neAvs of his unexpected advance. 
Had he pressed on, there is but little doubt that 
all the Stations would have fallen into his hands, 
for there were not men enough to spare from 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 161 

them to meet him in the field. The greatest 
difficulty would have been the carriage of the 
artillery. The unfortunate people who had 
fallen into the hands of the Indians at Ruddle's 
Station were obliged to accompany their cap- 
tors on their rapid retreat, heavily laden with the 
plunder of their OAvn dwellings. Some returned 
after peace was made, but too many, sinking 
under the fatigues of the journey, perished by 
the tomahawk. 

Soon after the retreat of the enemy. General 
Clark, who was stationed at Fort Jefferson, 
called upon the Kentuckians to join him in an 
invasion of the Indian country. The reputation 
of Clark caused the call to be responded to with 
gi'eat readiness. A thousand men were collected, 
with whom Clark entered and devastated the 
enemy's territory. The principal towns were 
burned and the fields laid waste. But one skir- 
mish was fought, and that at the Indian village 
of Pickaway. The loss was the same on both 
sides, seventeen men being killed in each army. 
Some writers who have not the slightest objec- 
tion to war very gravely express doubts as to 



XX 



162 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

whether the expedient of destroying the crops 
of the Indians was justifiable. It is generally 
treated by these men as if it was a wanton dis- 
play of a vindictive spirit, when in reality it was 
dictated by the soundest policy ; for when the 
Indians' harvests were destroyed, they were 
compelled to subsist their families altogether by 
hunting and had no leisure for their murderous 
inroads upon the settlements. This result was 
plainly seen on this occasion, for it does not ap- 
pear that the Indians attacked any of the settle- 
ments during the remainder of this year. 

An adventure which occurred in the spring, 
but was passed over for the more important 
operations of the campaign, claims our atten- 
tion, presenting as it does a picture of the varie- 
ties of this mode of warfare. We quote from 
McClung : 

"Early in the spring of 1780 Mr. Alexander 
McConnell, of Lexington, Kentucky, went into 
the woods on foot to hunt deer. He soon 
killed a large buck, and returned home for a 
horse in order to bring it in. During his ab- 
sence a party of five Indians, on one of their 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 163 

usual skulking expeditions, accidentally stum- 
bled on the body of the deer, and perceiving 
that it had been recently killed, they naturally 
supposed that the hunter would speedily return 
to secure the flesh. Three of them, therefore, 
took their stations within close rifle-shot of the 
deer, while the other two followed the trail of 
the hunter, and waylaid the path by which he 
was expected to return. McConnell, expecting 
no danger, rode carelessly along the path, which 
the two scouts were watching, until he had 
come within view of the deer, when he was 
fired upon by the whole party, and his horse 
killed. While laboring to extricate himself 
from the dying animal, he was seized by his 
enemies, instantly overpowered, and borne off 
as a prisoner. 

" His captors, however, seemed to be a merry, 
good-natured set of fellows, and permitted him to 
accompany them unbound, and, what was rather 
extraordinary, allowed him to retain his gun 
and hunting accouterments. He accompanied 
them with great apparent cheerfulness through 
the day, and displayed his dexterity in shooting 



164: LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

deer for the use of the company, until they 
began to regard him with great partiality. 
Having traveled with them in this manner for 
several days, they at length reached the banlvs 
of the Ohio River. Heretofore the Indians had 
taken the precaution to bind him at night, al- 
though not very seciu-ely ; but, on that evening, 
he remonstrated with them on the subject, and 
complained so strongly of the pain which the 
cords gave him, that they merely wrapped the 
buffalo tug loosely around his wrists, and hav- 
ing tied it in an easy knot, and attached the 
extremities of the rope to their own bodies in 
order to prevent his moving Avithout awakening 
them, they veiy composedly went to sleep, 
leaving the prisoner to follow their example or 
not, as he pleased. 

"McConnell determined to effect his escape 
that night if possible, as on the following night 
they would cross the river, which would render 
it much more difficult. He therefore lay quietly 
until near midnight, anxiously ruminating upon 
the best means of effecting his object. Acci- 
dentally casting his eyes in the direction of his 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 155 

feet, they fell upon the glittering blade of a 
knife, which had escaped its sheath, and was 
now lying near the feet of one of the Indians. 
To reach it with his hands, without disturbing 
the two Indians to whom he was fastened, was 
impossible, and it was very hazardous to attempt 
to draw it up with his feet. This, hoAvever, he 
attempted. With much difficulty he grasped 
the blade between his toes, and, after repeated 
and long-continued eiforts, succeeded at length 
in bringing it within reach of his hands. 

'' To cut his cords was then but the work of 
a moment, and gradually and silently extricat- 
ing his person from the ai^ms of the Indians, he 
walked to the fire and sat down. He saw that 
his work was but half done. That if he should 
attempt to return home without destroying his 
enemies, he would assuredly be pursued and 
probably overtaken, when his fate would be 
certain. On the other hand, it seemed almost 
impossible for a single man to succeed in a con- 
flict with five Indians, even although unarmed 
and asleep. He could not hope to deal a blow 
with his knife so silently and fatally as to 



166 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

destroy each one of his enemies in turn without 
awakening the rest. Theii* slumbers were pro- 
verbially light and restless ; and, if he failed 
with a single one, he must instantly be over- 
powered by the surrivors. The knife, therefore, 
was out of the question. 

" After anxious reflection for a few minutes, 
he formed his plan. The guns of the Indians 
were stacked near the fire ; their knives and 
tomahawks were in sheaths by their sides. The 
latter he dared not touch for fear of awakening 
their owners ; but the former he carefully re- 
moved, with the exception of two, and hid them 
in the woods, where he knew the Indians would 
not readily find them. He then returned to the 
spot where the Indians were still sleeping, per- 
fectly ignorant of the fate preparing for them, 
and, taking a gun in each hand, he rested the 
muzzles upon a log within six feet of his victims, 
and, ha\dng taken deliberate aim at the head of 
one and the heart of another, he pulled both 
triggers at the same moment. 

"Both shots were fatal. At the report of 
the guns the others sprung to their feet and 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 167 

stared wildly around them. McConnel, who 
had run instantly to the spot where the other 
rifles were hid, hastily seized one of them and 
fired at two of his enemies who happened to 
stand in a line with each other. The nearest 
fell dead, being shot through the center of the 
body ; the second fell also, bellowing loudly, 
but quickly recovering, limped off into the woods 
as fast as possible. The fifth, and the only one 
who remained unhurt, darted off like a deer, 
mth a yell which announced equal terror and 
astonishment. McConnell, not wishing to fight 
any more such battles, selected his own rifle 
from the stack, and made the best of his way to 
Lexington, where he arrived safely within two 
days. 

" Shortly afterward, Mrs. Dunlap, of Fayette, 
who had been several months a prisoner 
amongst the Indians on Mad River, made her 
escape, and returned to Lexington. She re- 
ported that the survivor returned to his tribe 
with a lamentable tale. He related that they 
had taken a fine young hunter near Lexington, 
and had brought him safely as far as the Ohio ; 



168 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

that wiiile encamped upon tlie bank of the 
river a large party of white men had fallen 
upon them in the night, and killed all his com- 
panions, together with the poor defenseless 
prisoner, who lay bound hand and foot, unable 
either to escape or resist." 

In October, 1780, Boone, who had brought 
his family back to Kentucky, went to the Blue 
Licks in company with his brother. They 
were attacked by a party of Indians, and Dan- 
iel's brother was killed, and he himself pursued 
by them with the assistance of a dog. Being 
hard pressed, he shot this animal to ^Drevent his 
barking from giving the alarm, and so escaped. 

Kentucky having been divided into three 
counties, a more perfect organization of the 
militia was effected. A Colonel and a Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel were appointed for each county ; 
those who held the first rank were Floyd, Lo- 
gan, and Todd. Pope, Trigg, and Boone held the 
second. Clark was Brigadier-General, and com- 
mander-in-chief of all the Kentucky militia ; be- 
sides which he had a small number of regulars 
at Fort Jefferson. Spies and scouting parties 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 169 

were continually employed, and a galley was 
constructed by Clark's order, which was fur- 
nished with light pieces of artillery. This new 
species of defense did not, however, take very 
well with the militia, who disliked serving upon 
the water, probably because they found their 
freedom of action too much circumscribed. The 
regulars were far too few to spare a force suffici- 
ent to man it, and soon it fell into disuse, though 
it is said to have been of considerable service 
while it was employed. Had the Kentuckians 
possessed such an auxiliary at the time of 
Byrd's invasion, it is probable that it would 
have been repelled. But on account of the re- 
luctance of the militia to serve in it, this useful 
vessel was laid aside and left to rot. 

The campaign, if we may so term it, of 1781, 
began very early. In March, several parties of 
Indians entered Jefferson County at different 
points, and ambushing the paths, killed four 
men, among whom was Colonel William Linn. 
Captain Whitaker, with fifteen men, pursued one 
of the parties. He followed their trail to the 
Ohio, when, supposing they had crossed over, he 



170 LIFE OP DANIEL BOONE. 

embarked his men in canoes to continue the pur- 
suit. But as they were in the act of pushing 
off, the Indians, who were concealed in their 
rear, fired upon them, killing or wounding nine 
of the party. Not^vithstanding this heavy loss, 
the survivors landed and put the Indians to flight 
Neither the number of the savages engaged in 
this affair or their loss is mentioned in the narra- 
tive. In April, a station which had been settled 
by Squire Boone, near Shelbyville, became al- 
armed by the report of the appearance of Indi- 
ans. After some deliberation, it was determined 
to remove to the settlement on Bear's Creek. 
While on their way thither they were attacked 
by a body of Indians and defeated with great 
loss. These are all the details of this action we 
have been able to find. Colonel Floyd collected 
twenty-five men to pursue the Indians, but, in 
spite of all his caution, fell into an ambuscade, 
which was estimated to consist of two hundred 
warriors. Half of Colonel Floyd's men were 
killed, and the survivors supposed that they had 
slain nine or ten of the Indians. This, however, 
is not probable ; either the number of the In- 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 171 

dians engaged, or their loss, is mucli exaggerated. 
Colonel Floyd himself had a narrow escape, 
being dismounted ; he would have been made 
prisoner, but for the gallant conduct of Captain 
Wells, who gave him his horse, the colonel be- 
ing exhausted, and ran by his side, to support 
him in the saddle. These officers had formerly 
been enemies, but the magnanimous behavior of 
Wells on this occasion made them steadfast 
friends. 

" As if every month," says Marshall, " was to 
furnish its distinguishing incident — in May, 
Samuel McAfee and another had set out from 
James McAfee's Station for a plantation at a 
small distance, and when advanced about one- 
fourth of a mile they were fired on ; the man 
fell — McAfee wheeled and ran toward the fort ; 
in fifteen steps he met an Indian — they each 
halt and present their guns, with muzzles almost 
touching — at the same instant they each pull 
trigger. McAfee's gun makes clear fire, the 
Indian's flashes in the pan — and he falls: 
McAfee continues his retreat but the alarm 
being given, he meets his brothers, Robert and 



172 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

James — the first, though cautioned, ran along 
the path to see the dead Indian, by this time 
several Indians had gained the path between 
him and the fort. All his agility and dexterity 
was now put to the test — he flies from tree to 
tree, still aiming to get to the fort, but is pur- 
sued by an Indian ; he throws himself over a 
fence, a hundred and fifty yards from the fort, 
and the Indian takes a tree — Robei*t, sheltered 
by the fence.^ was soon prepared for him, and 
while he puts his face by the side of the tree 
to look for his object, McAfee fires his rifle at 
it, and lodged the ball in hi-s moutli — in this he 
finds his death, and McAfee escapes to the 
fort." 

In the mean time, James McAfee was in a 
situation of equal hazard and perplexity. Five 
Indians, lying in ambush, fired at, but missed 
him ; he flies to a tree for safety, and instantly 
received a fire from three or four Indians on 
the other side — the bullets knock the dust about 
his feet, but do him no injury ; he abandons 
the tree and makes good his retreat to the fort. 
One white man and two Indians were Hllei 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 1^3 

Such were the incidents of Indian warfare — and 
such the fortunate escape of the brothers. 

Other events occurred in rapid succession — the 
Indians appear in all directions, and with horrid 
yells and menacing gestures commence a fire on 
the fort. It was returned with spirit ; the 
women cast the bullets — the men discharged 
them at the enemy. This action lasted about 
two hours; the Indians then withdrew. The 
firing had been heard, and the neighborhood 
roused for the fight. Major Magary, with some 
of his men, and others from other stations, to the 
number of forty, appeared on the ground soon 
after the Indians had retreated, and determined 
on pursuing them. This was accordingly done 
with promptitude and celerity. At the distance 
of a mile the enemy were overtaken, attacked, 
and defeated. They fled — were pursued for 
several miles — and completely routed. Six or 
seven Indians were seen dead, and others 
wounded. One Kentuckian was killed in the 
action ; another mortally wounded, who died 
after a few days. Before the Indians entirely 
withdrew from the fort they killed all the 



174 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

ca^iSe they saw, without making any use of 
them. 

From this time McAfee's Station was never 
more attacked, although it remained for several 
years an exposed frontier. Nor should the re- 
mark be omitted that for the residue of the year 
there were fewer incidents of a hostile nature 
than usual. 

Fort Jefferson, which had been established on 
the Mississippi, about five miles below the mouth 
of the Ohio, had excited the jealousy of the Choc- 
taws and* Chickasaws, who claimed the territory 
in which it was built. In order to appease them, 
it was deemed advisable to evacuate the post. 

The hostile tribes north of the Ohio had by 
this time found the strength of the settlers, and 
saw that unless they made a powerful effort, 
and that speedily, they must forever relinquish 
all hope of reconquering Kentucky. Such an 
effort was determined upon for the next yeai* ; 
and in order to weaken the whites as much as 
possible, till they were prepared for it, they 
continued to send out small parties, to infest the 
settlements. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 175 

At a distance of about twelve miles from 
Logan's Foii: was a settlement called the Mont- 
gomery Station. Most of the people were con- 
nected with Logan's family. This Station was 
surrounded in the night. In the morning an 
attack was made. Several persons were killed 
and others captured. A giii who escaped spread 
the alarm ; a messenger reached Logan's Foii;, 
and General Logan with a strong party pursued 
the Indians, defeated them and recovered the 
prisoners. 



CHAPTER XV- 

News of Cornwallis's surrender — Its effects — Captain Estill's 
defeat — Grand army of Indians raised for the conquest of 
Kentucky— Simon Girty's speech — Attack on Hoy's Station 
— Investment of Bryant's Station — Expedient of the be- 
sieged to obtain water — Grand attack on the fort — Repulse — 
Regular siege commenced — Messengers sent to Lexington — 
Reinforcement obtained — Arrival near the fort — Ambushed 
and attacked— They enter the fort— Narrow escape of 
Girty — He proposes a capitulation — Parley — Reynolds' an- 
swer to Girty — The siege raised — Retreat of the Indians. 

In October, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered at 
Yorktown. This event was received in Ken- 
tucky, as in other parts of the country, with 
great joy. The power of Britain was supposed 
to be broken, or at least so much crippled, that 
they w^ould not be in a condition to assist their 
Indian allies as they had previously done. The 
winter passed away quietly enough and the 
people were once more lulled into security from 
which they were again to be rudely awakened. 
Early in the spring the parties of the enemy 

recomanenced their forays. Yet there was noth- 
176 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 177 

ing in these to excite unusual apprehensions. At 
first tliey were scarcely equal in magnitude to 
those of the previous year. Cattle were killed, 
and horses stolen, and individuals or small par- 
ties were attacked. But in May an affair occurred 
possessing more interest, in a military point of 
view, than any other in the history of Indian 
wars. 

In the month of May a part}^ of about twenty- 
five Wyandots invested Estill's Station, on the 
south of the Kentucky River, killed one white 
man, took a negro prisoner, and after destroying 
the cattle, retreated. Soon after the Indians 
disappeared. Captain Estill raised a company of 
twenty-five men ; with these he pursued the 
Indians, and on Hinkston's Fork of Licking, two 
miles below the Little Mountain, came within 
gunshot of them. They had just crossed the 
creek, which in that part is small, and were as- 
cending one side as Estill's party descended the 
other, of two approaching hills of moderate 
elevation. The watercourse which lay between 
had produced an opening in the timber and 

brush, conducing to mutual discovery, while 
12 



178 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

both hills were well set with trees, interspersed 
with saplings and bushes. Instantly after dis- 
covering the Indians, some of Captain Estill's 
men fired at them ; at first they seemed alarmed, 
and made a movement like flight; but their 
chief, although wounded, gave them orders to 
stand and fight — on which they promptly pre- 
pared for battle by each man taking a tree and 
facing his enemy, as nearly in a line as practi- 
cable. In this position they returned the fire 
and entered into the battle, which they con- 
sidered as inevitable, with all the fortitude and 
animation of individual and concerted bravery 
so remarkable in this particular tribe. 

In the meantime, Captain Estill, with due 
attention to what was passing on the opposite 
side, checked the progress of his men at about 
sixty yards distance from the foe, and gave 
orders to extend their lines in front of the 
Indians, to cover themselves by means of the 
trees, and to fire as the object should be seen — 
with a sure aim. This order, perfectly adapted 
to the occasion, was executed with alacrity, as far 
as circumstances would admit, and the desultory 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE, 179 

mode of Indian fighting was thought to require. 
So that both sides were preparing and ready 
at the same time for the bloody conflict which 
ensued, and which proved to be singularly ob- 
stinate. 

The numbers were equal; some have said, 
exactly twenty-five on each side. Others have 
mentioned that Captain Estill, upon seeing the 
Indians form for battle, despatched one or two 
of his men upon the back trail to hasten for- 
ward a small reinforcement, which he supposed 
was following him ; and if so, it gave the In- 
dians the superiority of numbei's without pro- 
ducing the desired assistance, for the reinforce- 
ment never arrived. 

Now were the hostile lines within rifle-shot, 
and the action became warm and general to 
their extent. Never was battle more like single 
combat since the use of fire-arms ; each man 
sought his man, and fired only when he saw his 
mark ; wounds and death were inflicted on either 
side — neither advancing nor retreating. The 
firing was deliberate ; with caution they looked, 
but look they would, for the foe, although life 



180 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

itself was often tlie forfeit. And thus both 
sides firmly stood, or bravely fell, for more than 
an hour ; upward of one-fourth of the combat- 
ants had fallen, never more to rise, on either 
side, and several others were wounded. Never, 
probably, was the native bravery or collected 
fortitude of men put to a test more severe. In 
the clangor of an ardent battle, when death is 
forgotten, it is nothing for the brave to die — 
when even cowards die like brave men — but in 
the cool and lingering expectation of death, 
none but the man of the true courage can stand. 
Such were those engaged in this conflict. Never 
was maneuvering more necessary or less prac- 
ticable. Captain Estill had not a man to spare 
from his line, and deemed unsafe any movement 
in front with a view to force the enemy from 
their ground, because in such a movement he 
must expose his men, and some of them would 
inevitably fall before they could reach the ad- 
versary. This would increase the relative su- 
periority of the enemy, while they would receive 
the sur\ivors with tomahawk in hand, in the 
use of which they were practised and expert. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 181 

He clearly perceived that no advantage was to 
be gained over the Indians while, the action was 
continued in their own mode of warfare. For 
although his men were probably the best shooters 
the Indians were undoubtedly the most expert 
Tiiders I that victory itself, could it have been 
purchased with the loss of his last man, would 
afford but a melancholy consolation for the loss 
of friends and comrades, but even of victory, 
without some maneuver he could not assure 
himself. His situation was critical, his fate 
seemed suspended upon the events of the min- 
ute ; the most prompt expedient was demanded. 
He cast his eyes over the scene ; the creek was 
before him, and seemed to oppose a charge on 
the enemy — retreat he could not. On the one 
hand he observed a valley running from the 
creek toward the rear of the enemy's line, and 
immediately combining this circumstance with 
the urgency of his situation, rendered the more 
apparently hazardous by an attempt of the In- 
dians to extend their line and take his in flank, 
he determined to detach six of his men by this 
valley to gain the flank or rear of the enemy, 



182 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

while himself, with the residue, maintained his 
position in front. 

The detachment was accordingly made under 
the command of Lieutenant Miller, to whom the 
route was shown and the order given, conform- 
ably to the above mentioned determination ; un- 
fortunately, however, it was not executed. The 
lieutenant, either mistaking his way or intention- 
ally betraying his duty, his honor, and his cap- 
tain, did not proceed with the requisite dispatch ; 
and the Indians, attentive to occurrences, finding 
out the weakened condition of their adversaries, 
rushed upon them and compelled a retreat after 
Captain Estill and eight of his men were killed. 
Four others were badly wounded, who, notwith- 
standing, made their escape ; so that only nine 
fell into the hands of the savages, who scalped 
and stripped them, of course. 

It was believed by the survivors of this action 
that one half of the Indians were killed ; and 
this idea was corroborated by reports from their 
towns. 

There is also a tradition that Miller, with his 
detachment, crossed the creek, fell in with the 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 183 

enemy, lost one or two of his men, and tad a 
third or fourth wounded before he retreated. 

The battle lasted two hours, and the Indian 
chief was himself killed immediately after he 
had slain Captain Estill ; at least it is so stated 
in one account we have seen. This action had 
a very depressing effect upon the spirits of the 
Kentuckians. Yet its results to the victors were 
enough to make them say, with Pyrrhus, ^' A 
few more such victories, and we shall be un- 
done." It is very certain that the Indians would 
not have been willing to gain many such vic- 
tories even to accomplish their darling object — 
the expulsion of the whites from Kentucky. 

The grand army, destined to accomplish the 
conquest of Kentucky, assembled at Chillicothe. 
A detachment from Detroit reinforced them, and 
before setting out, Simon Girty made a speech 
to them, enlarging on the ingratitude of the 
Long-knives in rebelling against their Great 
Father across the water. He described in glow- 
ing terms the fertility of Kentucky, exhorting 
them to recover it from the grasp of the Long- 
knife before he should be too strong for thenou 



184 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

This speech met with the cordial approbation of 
the company ; the army soon after took up its 
march for the settlements. Six hundred war- 
riors, the flower of all the Northwestern tribes, 
were on their way to make what they knew 
must be their last effort to drive the intruders 
from their favorite hunting-gi^ound. 

Various parties preceded the main body, and 
these appearing in different places created much 
confusion in the minds of the inhabitants in re- 
gard to the place where the blow was to fall. 
An attack was made upon the garrison at Hoy's 
Station, and two boys were taken prisoners. 
The Indians, twenty in number, were pursued by 
Captain Holden, with seventeen men. He over- 
took them near the Blue Licks, (that fatal spot 
for the settlers,) and after a sharp conflict was 
obliged to retreat with the loss of four men. 

News of this disaster arrived at Bryant's 
Station, (a post on the Elkhorn, near the road 
from Lexington to Maysville,) on the fourteenth 
of August, and the garrison prepared to march 
to the assistance of Hoy's Station. But in the 
night the mdn body of the enemy arrived before 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 185 

the fort, it having been selected as the point for 
the first blow. 

The water for the use of the garrison was 
drawn from a spring at a considerable distance 
from the fort on the northwestern side. Near 
this spring the greater part of the enemy sta- 
tioned themselves in ambush. On the other 
side of the fort a body was posted with orders 
to make a feint of attacking, in order to draw 
the attention of the garrison to that point, and 
give an opportunity for the main attack. At 
daylight the garrison, consisting of forty or 
fifty men, were preparing to march out, when 
they were startled by a heavy discharge of rifles, 
with an accompaniment of such yells as come 
only from an Indian's throat. 

" All ran hastily to the picketing," says 
McClung, " and beheld a small party of Indians 
exposed to open view, firing, yelling, and making 
the most furious gestures. The appearance was 
so singular, and so different from their usual 
manner of fighting, that some of the more wary 
and experienced of the garrison instantly pro- 
nounced it a decoy party, and restrained the 



186 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

young men from sallying out and attacking them, 
as some of them were strongly disposed to do. 
The opposite side of the fort was instantly 
manned, and several breaches in the picketing 
rapidly repaired. Their greatest distress arose 
from the prospect of suffering for water. The 
more experienced of the garrison felt satisfied 
that a powerful party was in ambuscade near the 
spring ; bat at the same time they supposed that 
the Indians would not unmask themselves until 
the firing upon the opposite side of the fort was 
returned with such warmth as to induce the 
belief that the feint had succeeded. 

Acting upon this impression, and yielding to 
the urgent necessity of the case, they summoned 
all the women, without exception, and explain- 
ing to them the circumstances in which they 
were placed, and the improbability that any in- 
jury would be offered them, until the firing had 
been returned from the opposite side of the fort, 
they urged them to go in a body to the spring, 
and each to bring up a bucketful of water. 
Some of the ladies, as was natural, had no relish 
for the undertaking, and asked why the men 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 187 

could not bring water as well as themselves ? 
Observing that they were not bullet-proof, and 
that the Indians made no distinction between 
male and female scalps. 

To this it was answered, that women were in 
the habit of bringing water every morning to 
the fort, and that if the Indians saw them en- 
gaged as usual, it would induce them to believe 
that their ambuscade was undiscovered, and 
that they would not unmask themselves for the 
sake of firing at a few women, when they hoped, 
by remaining concealed a few moments longer, 
to obtain complete possession of the fort. That 
if men should go down to the spring, the Indians 
would immediately suspect that something was 
wrong, would despair of succeeding by ambus- 
cade, and would instantly rush upon them, fol- 
low them into the fort, or shoot them down at 
the spring. The decision was soon over. 

A few of the boldest declared their readiness 
to brave the danger ; and the younger and more 
timid rallying in the rear of these veterans, they 
all marched down in a body to the spring, within 
point-blank shot of more than five hundred In- 



188 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

dian warriors. Some of the girls could not help 
betraying symptoms of terror, but the married 
women, in general, moved with a readiness and 
composure which completely deceived the In- 
dians. Not a shot was fired. The party were 
permitted to fill their buckets, one after another, 
without interruption ; and although their steps 
became quicker and quicker, on their return, and 
when near the gate of the fort, degenerated into 
a rather unmilitary celerity, attended with some 
little crowding in passing the gate, yet not more 
than one-fifth of the water was spilled, and the 
eyes of the youngest had not dilated to more 
than double their ordinary size. 

Being now amply supplied with water, they 
sent out thirteen young men to attack the decoy 
party, with orders to fire with great rapidity, 
and make as much noise as possible, but not to 
pursue the enemy too far, while the rest of the 
garrison took post on the opposite side of the 
fort, cocked their guns, and stood in readiness to 
receive the ambuscade as soon as it was un- 
masked. The firing of the light parties on the 
Lexington road was soon heard, and quickly be- 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 189 

came sharp and serious, gradually becoming 
more distant from the fort. Instantly, Girty 
sprung up at the head of his five hundred war- 
riors, and rushed rapidly upon the western gate, 
ready to force his way over the undefended 
palisades. Into this immense mass of dusky 
bodies, the garrison poured several rapid volleys 
of rifle balls with destructive effect. Their con- 
sternation may be imagined. With wild cries 
they dispersed on the right and left, and in two 
minutes not an Indian was to be seen. At the 
same time, the party who had sallied out on the 
Lexington road, came running into the fort at 
the opposite gate, in high spirits, and laughing 
heartily at the success of their maneuver." 

After this repulse, the Indians commenced 
the attack in regular form, that is, regular In- 
dian form, for they had no cannon, which was 
a great oversight and one which we would not 
have expected them to make, after witnessing 
the terror with which they had inspired the 
Kentuckians in Byrd's invasion. 

Two men had left the garrison immediately 
upon discovering the Indians, to carry the news 



100 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

to Lexington and demand succor. On arriving 
at that place they found the men had mostly 
gone to Hoy's Station. The couriers pursued, 
and overtaking them, quickly brought them 
back. Sixteen horsemen, and forty or fifty on 
foot, started to the relief of Bryant's Station, 
and anived before that place at two o'clock in 
the afternoon. 

To the left of the long and narrow lane, 
where the Maysville and Lexington road now 
nms, there were more than one hundred acres 
of green standing com. The usual road from 
Lexington to Biyant's ran parallel to the fence 
of this field, and only a few feet distant from 
it. On the opposite side of the road was a thick 
wood. Here more than three hundred Indians 
lay in ambush, within pistol-shot of the road, 
awaiting the approach of the party. The horse- 
men came in view at a time when the firing had 
ceased and everything was quiet. Seeing no 
enemy and hearing no noise, they entered the 
lane at a gallop, and were instantly saluted 
with a shower of rifle-balls, from each side, at 
the distance of ten paces. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 191 

At the first shot the whole party set spurs 
to their horses, and rode at full speed through 
a rolling fire from either side, which continued 
for several hundred yards, but owing partly to 
the furious rate at which they rode, partly to 
the clouds of dust raised by the horses' feet, 
they all entered the fort unhurt. The men on 
foot were less fortunate. They were advancing 
through the corn-field, and might have reached 
the fort in safety but for their eagerness to suc- 
cor their friends. Without reflecting that, from 
the weight and extent of the fire, the enemy 
must have been ten times their number, they 
ran up with inconsiderate courage to the spot 
where the firing was heard, and there found 
themselves cut off from the fort, and within 
pistol-shot of more than three hundred savages. 

Fortunately the Indians' guns had just been 
discharged, and they had not yet had leisure to 
reload. At the sight of this brave body of 
footmen, however, they raised a hideous yell, 
and rushed upon them, tomahawk in hand. 
Nothing but the high corn and their loaded 
rifles could have saved them from destruc- 



192 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

tion. The Indians were cautious in rusHng 
upon a loaded rifle with only a tomahawk, and 
when they halted to load their pieces, the Ken- 
tuckians ran with great rapidity, turning and 
dodging through the com in every direction. 
Some entered the wood and escaped through 
the thickets of cane, some were shot down in 
the corn-field, others maintained a running 
fight, halting occasionally behind trees and 
keeping the enemy at bay with their rifles ; for, 
of all men, the Indians are generally the most 
cautious in exposing themselves to danger. A 
stout, active, young fellow was so hard pressed 
by Girty and several savages, that he was com- 
pelled to discharge his rifle (however unwilling, 
having no time to reload it), and Girty fell. 

It happened, however, that a piece of thick 
sole-leather was in his shot-pouch at the time, 
which received the ball, and preserved his life, 
although the force of the blow felled him to 
the ground. The savages halted upon his fall, 
and the young man escaped. Although the 
skirmish and the race lasted more than an hour, 
during which the corn-field presented a scene 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 193 

of turmoil and bustle whicli can scarcely be 
conceived, yet very few lives were lost. Only 
six of the white men were killed and wounded, 
and probably still fewer of the enemy, as the 
whites never fired until absolutely necessary, 
but reserved their loads as a check upon the 
enemy. Had the Indians pursued them to 
Lexington, they might have possessed themselves 
of it without resistance, as there was no force 
there to oppose them ; but after following the 
fugitives for a few hundred yards, they returned 
to the hopeless siege of the fort." * 

The day was nearly over, and the Indians 
were discoui'aged. They had made no percep- 
tible impression upon the fort, but had sustained 
a severe loss ; the country was aroused, and they 
feared to find themselves outnumbered in their 
turn. Girty determined to attempt to frighten 
them into a capitulation. For this purpose he 
cautiously approached the works, and suddenly 
showed himself on a large stump, from which 
he addressed the garrison. After extolling 
their valor, he assured them that their resistance 

X3 



19^ LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

was useless, as lie expected his artillery shortly, 
when their fort would be crushed without diffi- 
culty. He promised them perfect security for 
their lives if they surrendered, and menaced 
them with the usual inflictions of Indian rage if 
they refused. He concluded by asking if they 
knew him. The garrison of course gave no , 
credit to the promises of good treatment con- 
tained in this speech. They were too well 
acquainted with the facility with which such 
pledges were given and violated ; but the men- 
tion of cannon was rather alarming, as the ex- 
pedition of Colonel Byrd was fresh in the minds 
of all. None of the leaders made any answer 
to Girty, but a young man by the name of Eey- 
nolds took upon himself to reply to it. In re- 
gard to the question of Girty, ''Whether the 
garrison knew him ? " he said : 

" ' That he was very well known ; that he him- 
self had a worthless dog, to which he had given 
the name of "Simon Girty," in consequence 
of his striking resemblance to the man of that 
name ; that if he had either artillery or reinforce- 
ments, he might bring them up and be d — — d * 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 195 

that it either himself, or any of the naked 
rascals with him, found their way into the fort, 
they would disdain to use their guns against 
them, but would drive them out again with 
switches, of which they had collected a great 
number for that purpose alone ; and finally he 
declared that they also expected reinforcements ; 
that the whole country was marching to their 
assistance ; that if Girty and his gang of mur- 
derers remained twenty-four hours longer before 
the fort, their scalps would be found drying in 
the sun upon the roofs of their cabins.' " * 

Girty affected much sorrow for the inevita- 
ble destruction which he assured the garrison 
awaited them, in consequence of their obstinacy. 
All idea of continuing the siege was now aban- 
doned. The besiegers evacuated their camp 
that very night ; and with so much precipi- 
tation, that meat was left roasting before the 
fires. Though we cannot wonder at this relin- 
quishing of a long-cherished scheme when we 
consider the character of the Indians, yet it 
would be impossible to account for the appear* 

* McQung. 



X96 LI^^ OF DANIEL BOONE. 

ance of precipitancy, and even terror, with. 
wliicli their retreat was accompanied, did we not 
perceive it to be the first of a series of similar 
artifices, designed to draw on their enemies to 
their ov/n destruction. There was nothing in 
the circumstances to excite great apprehensions. 
To be sure, they had been repulsed in their at- 
tempt on the fort with some loss, yet this loss 
(thirty men) would by no means have deterred 
a European force of similar numbers from prose- 
cuting the enterprise. 

Gii'ty and his great Indian army retired to- 
ward Ruddle's and Martin's Stations, on a cir- 
cuitous route, toward Lower Blue Licks. They 
expected, however, to be pursued, and evidently 
desired it, as they left a broad trail behind 
them, and marked the trees which stood on their 
route with their tomahawks.* 

* Frost : " Border Wars of the West." Peck : " Life of 
Boone." McClung : *' Western Adventxire." 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Arrival of reinforcements at Bryant's Station — Colonel Daniel 
Boone, his son and brother among them— Colonels Trigg, 
Todd, and others — Great number of commissioned officers 
— Consultation — Pursuit commenced without waiting for 
Colonel Logan's reinforcement— Indian Trail— Apprehen- 
sions of Boone and others — Arrival at the Blue Licks — In- 
dians seen — Consultation — Colonel Boone's opinion — Rash 
conduct of Major McGary — Battle of Blue Licks com- 
menced—Fierce encounter with the Indians— Israel Boone, 
Colonels Todd and Trigg, and Majors Harland and McBride 
killed — Attempt of the Indians to outflank the whites — 
Retreat of the whites — Colonel Boone nearly surrounded by 
Indians — Cuts his way through them, and returns to 
Bryant's Station — Great slaughter — Bravery of Netherland 
— Noble conduct of Reynolds in saving Captain Patterson — 
Loss of the whites — Colonel Boone's statement — Remarks 
on McGary's conduct — The fugitives meet Colonel Logan 
with his party — Return to the field of battle — Logan 
returns to Bryant's Station. 

The intelligence of the siege of Bryant's 
Station had spread far and wide, and the whole 
region round was in a state of intense excite- 
ment. The next morning after the enemy's re- 
treat reinforcements began to arrive, and in the 

course of the day successive bodies of militia 

197 



198 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

presented themselves, to the number of one 
hundred and eighty men. 

Among this number was Colonel Daniel 
Boone, his son Israel, and his brother Samuel, 
with a strong party of men from Boonesborough. 
Colonel Stephen Trigg led a similar corps from 
Harrodsburg ; and Colonel John Todd headed 
the militia from Lexington. Majors Harland, 
McGary, McBride, and Levi Todd were also 
among the arrivals.* 

It is said that nearly one-third of the whole 
force assembled at Bryant's Station were com- 
missioned officers, many of whom had hurried 
to the relief of their countrymen. This supe- 
rior activity is to be accounted for by the 
fact that the officers were generally selected 
from the most active and skillful of the 
pioneers. 

A consultation was held in a tumultuous 
manner, and it was determined to pursue the 
enemy at once. The Indians had retreated by 
way of the Lower Blue Licks. The pursuit was 
commenced without waiting for the junction of 

♦Peck. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 199 

Colonel Logan, who was known to be coming 
up with a strong reinforcement. The trail of 
the enemy exhibited a degree of carelessness 
very unsuual in an Indian retreat. Various arti- 
cles were strewn along the path, as if in terror 
they had been abandoned. These symptoms, 
while they increased the ardor of the young 
men, excited the apprehensions of the more ex- 
perienced borderers, and Boone in particular. 
He noticed that, amid all the signs of disorder 
so lavishly displayed, the Indians seemed to 
take even unusual care to conceal their numbers 
by contracting their camp. It would seem that 
the Indians had rather overdone their stratagem. 
It was very natural to those not much experi- 
enced in Indian warfare to suppose that the 
articles found strewn along the road had been 
abandoned in the hurry of flight; but when 
they found that the utmost pains had been 
taken to point out the way to them by chopping 
the trees, one would have thought that the 
rawest among them, who had only spent a few 
months on the border, could have seen through 
so transparent an artifice. But these indications 



200 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

were disregarded in the desire felt to punisla 
the Indians for their invasion. 

Nothing was seen of the enemy till the Ken 
tuekians reached the Blue Licks. Here, just 
as they arrived at Licking River, a few Indians 
were seen on the other side, retreating without 
any appearance of alarm. The troops now 
made a halt, and the officers held a consultation 
to determine on the course to be pursued. 
Colonel Daniel Boone, on being appealed to as 
the most experienced person present, gave his 
opinion as follows : 

" That their situation was critical and deli- 
cate ; that the force opposed to them \\ as un- 
doubtedly numerous and ready for battle, as 
might readily be seen from the leisurely retreat 
of the few Indians who had appeared upon the 
crest of the hill ; that he was well acquainted 
■with the ground in the neighborhood of the 
Licks, and was apprehensive than an ambuscade 
was formed at the distance of a mile in advance, 
where two ravines, one upon each side of the 
ridge, ran in such a manner that a concealed 
enemy might assail them at once both in front 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 201 

and flank before they were apprized of tlie 
danger. 

"It would be proper, therefore, to do one 
of two things : either to await the arrival of 
Logan, who was now undoubtedly on his march 
to join them ; or, if it was determined to attack 
without delay, that one-half of their mmiber 
should march up the river, which there bends 
in an elliptical form, cross at the rapids, and 
fall upon the rear of the enemy, while the other 
division attacked them in front. At any rate, 
he strongly urged the necessity of reconnoitering 
the ground carefully before the main body 
crossed the river." * 

McClung, in his "Western Adventures," 
doubts whether the plan of operation proposed 
by Colonel Boone would have been more sue 
cessful than that actually adopted, suggesting 
that the enemy would have cut them off in de- 
tail, as at Estill's defeat. 

But before the officers could come to any 
conclusion. Major McGary dashed into the river 
on horseback, calling on all who were not cowards 

* McClung. 



202 tlFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

to follow. The next moment tlie whole of the 
party w^ere advancing to the attack with the 
greatest ardor, but Avithout any order whatever. 
Horse and foot struggled through the river to- 
gether, and, without waiting to form, rushed up 
the ascent from the shore. 

" Suddenly," says McClung, " the van halted. 
They had reached the spot mentioned by Boone, 
where the two ravines head, on each side of the 
ridge. Here a body of Indians presented them- 
selves, and attacked the van. McGary's party 
instantly returned the iire but under great dis- 
advantage. They were upon a bare and open 
ridge ; the Indians in a bushy ravine. The 
center and rear, ignorant of the ground, hurried 
up to the assistance of the van, but w^ere soon 
stopped by a terrible fire from the ravine which 
flanked them. They found themselves enclosed 
as if in the wings of a net, destitute of proper 
shelter, while the enemy were in a great measure 
covered from their fire. Still, however, they 
maintained their ground. The action became 
warm and bloody. The parties gradually 
closed, the Indians emerged from the ravine, 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE, 203 

and the fire became mutually destructive. The 
officers suffered dreadfully. Todd and Trigg in 
the rear, Harland, McBride and young Israel 
Boone in front, were already killed. 

The Indians gradually extended their line to 
turn the right of the Kentuckians, and cut off 
their retreat. This was quickly perceived by 
the weight of the fire from that quarter, and the 
rear instantly fell back in disorder, and at- 
tempted to rush through their only opening to 
the river. The motion quickly communicated 
itseK to the van, and a hurried retreat became 
general. The Indians instantly sprung forward 
in pui-suit, and, falling upon them with their 
tomahawks, made a cruel slaughter. From the 
battle-ground to the river the spectacle was ter- 
rible. The horsemen, generally, escaped ; but 
the foot, particularly the van, which had ad- 
vanced furthest within the wings of the net, 
were almost totally destroyed. Colonel Boone, 
after witnessing the death of his son and many 
of his dearest friends, found himself almost en- 
tirely surrounded at the very commencement of 
the retreat. 



204 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

Several hundred Indians were between Mm 
and tlie ford, to whicli tlie great mass of the 
fugitives were bending their flight, and to which 
the attention of the savages was principally 
directed. Being intimately acquainted with 
the gi'ound, he, together with a few friends, 
dashed into the ravine which the Indians had 
occupied, but which most of them had now left 
to join in the pursuit. After sustaining one or 
two heavy fires, and baffling one or two small 
parties who pursued him for a short distance, 
he crossed the river below the ford by swim- 
ming, and, entering the wood at a point where 
there was no pursuit, returned by a circuitous 
route to Bryant's Station. In the meantime 
the great mass of the victors and vanquished 
crowded the bank of the ford. 

The slaughter was great in the river. The 
ford was crowded with horsemen and foot and 
Indians, all mingled together. Some were com- 
pelled to seek a passage above by swimming; 
some who could not swim were overtaken and 
killed at the edge of the water. A man by the 
name of Netherland, who had formerly been 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 205 

strongly suspected of cowardice, here displayed 
a coolness and presence of mind equally noble 
and unexpected. Being finely mounted, he had 
outstripped the great mass of fugitives, and 
crossed the river in safety. A dozen or twenty 
horsemen accompanied him, and, having placed 
the river between them and the enemy, showed 
a disposition to continue their flight, without 
regard to the safety of their friends who were 
on foot and still struggling with the current. 
Netherland instantly checked his horse, and 
in a loud voice called upon his companions to 
halt, fire upon the Indians, and save those who 
were still in the stream. The party instantly 
obeyed, and, facing about, poui'ed a close and 
fatal dischai'ge of rifles upon the foremost of 
the pursuers. The enemy instantly fell back 
from the opposite bank, and gave time for the 
harassed and miserable footmen to cross in 
safety. The check, however, was but momen- 
tary. Indians were seen crossing in great num- 
bers above and below, and the flight again 
became general. Most of the foot left the great 
buffalo track, and plunging into the thickets, 



206 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

escaped by a circuitous route to Bryant's Sta- 
tion." 

The pursuit was kept up for twenty miles, 
thougli witli but little success. In the flight 
from the scene of action to the river, young 
Reynolds (the same who replied to Gii'ty's 
summons at Bryant's Station), on horseback, 
overtook Captain Patterson on foot. This 
officer had not recovered from the effects of 
wounds received on a former occasion, and was 
altogether unable to keep up with the rest of 
the fugitives. 

Reynolds immediately dismounted, and gave 
the captain his horse. Continuing his flight on 
foot, he swam the river, but was made prisoner 
by a party of Indians. He was left in charge 
of a single Indian, whom he soon knocked down, 
and so escaped. For the assistance he so gal- 
lantly rendered him, Captain Patterson rewarded 
Reynolds with a present of two hundred acres 
of land. 

Sixty whites were killed in this battle of the 
Blue Licks, and seven made prisoners. Colonel 
Boone, in his Autobiography, says that he was 



LIFE O^ DANIEL BOONE. 207 

informed that the Indian loss in killed was 
four more than that of the Kentuckians, and 
that the former put four of the prisoners to 
death, to make the numbers equal. But this 
account does not seem worthy of credit, when 
we consider the vastly superior numbers of the 
Indians, their advantage of position, and the 
disorderly manner in which the Kentuckians 
advanced. If this account is true, the loss of 
the Indians in the actual battle must have been 
much greater than that of their opponents, 
many of the latter having been killed in the 
pursuit. 

As the loss of the Kentuckians on this oc- 
casion, the heaviest they had ever sustained, 
was undoubtedly caused by rashness, it becomes 
our duty, according to the established usage of 
historians, to attempt to show where the fault, 
lies. The conduct of McGary, which brought 
on the action, appears to be the most culpable. 
He never denied the part which is generally 
attributed to him, but justified himself by say- 
ing that while at Bryant's Station, he had 
advised waiting for Logan, but was met with 



208 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

the charge of cowardice. He believed that 
Todd and Trigg were jealous of Logan, who 
was the senior colonel, and would have taken 
the command had he come up. This statement 
he made to a gentleman several years after the 
battle took place. He said also to the same 
person, that when he found them hesitating in 
the presence of the enemy, he " burst into a 
passion," called them cowards, and dashed into 
the river as before narrated. If this account 
be true, it may somewhat palliate, but certainly 
not justify the action. 

Before the fugitives reached Bryant's Station 
they met Logan advancing with his detach- 
ment. The exaggerated accounts he received 
of the slaughter induced him to return to the 
above-mentioned place. On the next morning 
all who had escaped from the battle were as- 
sembled, when Logan found himself at the head 
of four hundred and fifty men. With this 
force, accompanied by Colonel Boone, he set 
out for the scene of action, hoping that the 
enemy, encouraged by their success, would await 
his arrival. But when he reached the field 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 209 

he found it deserted. Tlie bodies of tlie slain 
Kentuckians, frightfully mangled, were strewed 
over the ground. After collecting and interring 
these, Logan and Boone, finding they could do 
nothing more, returned to Bryant's Station, 
where they disbanded the troops. 

"By such rash men as McGary," says Mr. 
Peck,* "Colonel Boone was charged with 
want of courage, when the result proved his 
superior wisdom and foresight. All the testi- 
mony gives Boone credit for his sagacity and 
correctness in judgment before the action and 
his coolness and self-possession in covering the 
retreat. His report of this battle to Benjamin 
Harrison, Governor of Virginia, is one of the 
few documents that remain from his pen." 

" Boone's Station^ Fayette County, 
August SOth, 1782. 

" Sir : Present circumstances of affairs cause 
me to write to your Excellency as follows : On 
the 16th instant a large number of Indians, 
with some white men, attacked one of our fi'on- 

» " Life of Boone," p. 130. 
?4 



210 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

tier Stations, known by the name of Bryant's 
Station. Tlie siege continued from about sun- 
rise till about ten o'clock the next day, when they 
marched off. Notice being given to the neigh- 
boring Stations, we immediately raised one 
hundred and eighty -one horse, commanded by 
Colonel John Todd, including some of the Lin- 
coln County militia, commanded by Colonel 
Trigg, and pursued about forty miles. 

" On the 19th instant we discovered the 
enemy lying in wait for us. On this discovery, 
we formed our columns into one single line, and 
marched up in their front within about forty 
yards, before there was a gun fired. Colonel 
Trigg commanded on the right, myself on the 
left. Major McGary in the center, and Major 
Harlan the advanced party in front. From the 
manner in which we had formed, it fell to my 
lot to bring on the attack. This was done with 
a very heavy fire on both sides, and extended 
back of the line to Colonel Trigg, where the 
enemy were so strong they rushed up and broke 
the right wing at the first fire. Thus the enemy 
got in our rear, with the loss of seventy-seven of 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 211 

om* men and twelve wounded. Afterward we 
were reinforced by Colonel Logan, whicli made 
our force four hundred and sixty men. We 
marched again to the battle-ground ; but find- 
ing the enemy had gone, we proceeded to bury 
the dead. 

"We found forty-three on the ground, and 
many lay about, which we could not stay to 
find, hungry and weary as we were, and some- 
what dubious that the enemy might not have 
gone off quite. By the signs, we thought that 
the Indians had exceeded four hundred ; while 
the whole of this militia of the county does not 
amount to more than one hundred and thirty. 
From these facts your Excellency may form an 
idea of our situation. 

" I know that your own circumstances are 
critical ; but are we to be wholly forgotten ? I 
hope not. I trust about five hundred men may 
be sent to our assistance immediately. If these 
shall be stationed as our county lieutenants shall 
deem necessary, it may be the means of saving 
our part of the country ; but if they are placed 
under the diiection of General Clark, they will 



212 LI^E OF DANIEL BOONE. 

be of little or no service to our settlement. 
The Falls lie one hundred miles west of us, and 
the Indians northeast ; while our men are fre- 
quently called to protect them. 1 have encour- 
aged the people in this county all that I could ; 
but I can no longer justify them or myself to risk 
our lives here under such extraordinary hazards. 
The inhabitants of this county are very much 
alarmed at the thoughts of the Indians bring- 
ing another campaign into our country this fall. 
If this should be the case, it vdll break up these 
settlements. I hope, therefore, your Excellency 
will take the matter into consideration and send 
us some relief as quick as possible. 

" These are my sentiments, without consulting 
any person. Colonel Logan will, I expect, im- 
mediately send you an express, by whom I 
humbly request your Excellency's answer. In 
the meanwhile, I remain, 

"Daniel Boone." 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The Indians return home from the Blue Licks— They attack 
the settlements in Jefferson County — Affair at Simpson's 
Creek — General Clark's expedition to the Indian country — 
Colonel Boone joins it — Its effect — Attack of the Indians 
on the Crab Oi chard settlement — Rumor of intended inva- 
sion by the Cherokees — Difficulties about the treaty with 
Great Britain — Hostilities of the Indians generally stim- 
ulated by renegade whites — Simon Girty — Causes of his 
hatred of the whites — Girty insulted by General Lewis — 
Joins the Indians at the battle of Point Pleasant — Story of 
his rescuing Simon Kenton — Crawford's expedition, and 
the Burning of Crawford — Close of Girty's career. 

Most of tlie Indians who had taken part in 
the battle of the Blue Licks, according to their 
custom, returned home to boast of their victory, 
thus abandoning all the advantages which might 
have resulted to them from following up their suc- 
cess. Some of them, however, attacked the settle- 
ments in Jefferson County, but they were pre- 
vented from doing much mischief by the vigilance 
of the inhabitants. They succeeded, however, 

in breaking up a small settlement on Simpson's 

213 



214 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

Creek. This they attacked in the night, while 
the men, wearied by a scout of several days, were 
asleep. The enemy entered the houses before 
their occupants were fully aroused. Notwith- 
standing this, several of the men defended 
themselves with great courage. Thomas Ran- 
dolph killed several Indians before his wife and 
infant were struck do^vn at his side, when he es- 
caped with his remaining child through the roof. 
On reaching the ground he was assailed by two 
of the savages, but he beat them off, and escaped. 
Several women escaped to the woods, and two 
were secreted under the floor of a cabin, where 
they remained undiscovered. Still the Indians 
captured quite a number of women and children, 
some of whom they put to death on the road 
home. The rest were liberated the next year 
upon the conclusion of peace with the English. 
General George Rogers Clark proposed a re- 
taliatory expedition into the Indian country, and, 
to carry out the plan, called a council of the 
superior officers. The council agreed to his plan, 
and preparations were made to raise the requisite 
number of troops by drafting, if there should be 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 215 

any deficiency of volunteers. But it was not 
found necessary to resort to compulsory meas- 
ures, both men and supplies for the expedition 
were raised without difficulty. The troops to 
the number of one thousand, all mounted, as- 
sembled at Bryant's Station, and the Falls of 
the Ohio, from whence the two detachments 
marched under Logan and Floyd to the mouth 
of the Licking, where General Clark assumed the 
command. Colonel Boone took part in this 
expedition ; but probably as a volunteer. He is 
not mentioned as having a separate command. 
The history of this expedition, like most 
others of the same nature, possesses but little 
interest. The army witli all the expedition they 
could make, and for which the species of force 
was peculiarly favorable, failed to surprise the 
Indians. These latter opposed no resistance of 
importance to the advance of the army. Occa- 
sionally, a straggling party would fire upon the 
Kentuckians, but never waited to receive a 
similar compliment in return. Seven Indians 
were taken prisoners and three or four killed ; 
one of them an old chief, too infirm to fly, was 



216 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

killed by Major McGary. The towns of the 
Indians were burnt and their fields devastated. 
The expedition returned to Kentucky with the 
loss of four men, two of whom were accidentally 
killed by their own comrades. 

This invasion, though apparently so barren of 
result, is supposed to have produced a beneficial 
effect, by impressing the Indians with the num- 
bers and courage of the Kentuckians. They 
appear from this time to have given up the ex- 
pectation of reconquering the country, and con- 
fined their hostilities to the rapid incursions of 
small bands. 

During the expedition of Clark, a party of 
Indians penetrated to the Crab Orchard settle- 
ment. They made an attack upon a single 
house, containing only a woman, a negro man, 
and two or three children. One of the Indians, 
who had been sent in advance to reconnoiter, 
seeing the weakness of the garrison, thought to 
get all the glory of the achievement to him- 
self. 

Ho boldly entered the house and seized the 
negro, who proving strongest threw him on the 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 217 

floor, when the woman despatched him with an 
ax. The other Indians, coming up, attempted 
to force open the door, which had been closed 
by the children during the scuffle. There was 
no gun in the house, but the woman seized an 
old barrel of one, and thrust the muzzle 
through the logs, at which the Indians re- 
treated. 

The year 1783 passed away without any dis- 
turbance from the Indians, who were restrained 
by the desertion of their allies the British. In 
1784, the southern frontier of Kentucky was 
alarmed by the rumor of an intended invasion 
by the Cherokees, and some preparations wore 
made for an expedition against them, which 
fell through, however, because there was no au- 
thority to carry it on. The report of the hos- 
tility of the Cherokees proved to be untrue. 

Meanwhile difficulties arose in performance 
of the terms of the treaty between England and 
the United States. They appear to have orig- 
inated in a dispute in regard to an article con- 
tained in the treaty providing that the British 
army should not carry away with them any 



218 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

negroes or other property belonging to the 
American inhabitants. In consequence of what 
they deemed an infraction of this article, the 
Virginians refused to comply with another, 
which stipulated for the repeal of acts prohibit- 
ing the collection of debts due to British sub- 
jects. The British, on the other hand, refused 
to evacuate the western posts till this article 
was complied with. It was natural that the 
intercourse which had always existed between 
the Indians and the garrison of these posts, 
during the period they had acted as allies, 
should continue, and it did. 

In the unwritten history of the difficulties of 
the United States Government with the Indian 
tribes within her established boundaries, noth- 
ing appears clearer than this truth: that the 
fierce and sanguinary resistance of the aborigines 
to the encroachments of the Anglo-Americans 
has ever been begun and continued more through 
the instigations of outlawed white men, who 
had sought protection among them from the 
arm of the law or the knife of individual 
vengeance, and been adopted into their tribes, 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 219 

than from the promptings of their own judg^ 
ments, theii* disregard of death, their thirst for 
the blood of their oppressors, or their love of 
country* 

That their sense of wrong has at all times 
been keen, their hate deadly, and their bravery 
great, is a fact beyond dispute ; and that they 
have prized highly their old hunting-grounds, 
and felt a warm and lively attachment to their 
beautiful village sites, and regarded with 
especial veneration the burial-places of their 
fathers, their whole history attests ; but of their 
own weakness in war, before the arms and 
numbers of their enemies, they must have been 
convinced at a very early period; and they 
were neither so dull in apprehension, nor so 
weak in intellect, as not soon to have perceived 
the utter hopelessness, and felt the mad folly 
of a continued contest with their invaders. 
Long before the settlement of the whites upon 
this continent, the Indians had been subject to 
bloody and exterminating wars among them- 
selves ; and such conflicts had generally resulted 
♦ Gallagher. " Hesperian," vol, i. p. 343, 



220 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

in the flight of the weaker party towards the 
West, and the occupancy of their lands by the 
conquerors. Many of the tribes had a tradition 
among them, and regarded it as their unchange- 
able destiny, that they were to journey from 
the rising to the setting sun, on their way to 
the bright waters and the green forests of the 
"Spirit Land," and the working out of this 
destiny seems apparent, if not in the location, 
course, and character of the tumuli and other 
remains of the great aboriginal nations of whom 
even tradition furnishes no account, certainly 
in what we know of the history of the tribes 
found on the Atlantic coast by the first Euro- 
pean settlers. 

It seems fairly presumable, from our knowl- 
edge of the history and character of the North 
American Indians, that had they been left to 
the promptings of their own judgments, and 
been influenced only by the deliberations of 
their own councils, they would, after a brief, 
but perhaps most bloody, resistance to the en- 
croachments of the whites, have bowed to what 
would have struck their untutored minds as an 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 221 

inevitable destiny, and year after year flowed 
silently, as tlie European wave pressed upon 
them, further and further into the vast 
wildernesses of the mighty West. But left 
to their own judgments, or their own delib- 
erations, they never have been. Early armed 
by renegade white men with European weap- 
ons, and taught the improvement of their own 
rude instruments of warfare, and instigated not 
only to oppose the strides of their enemies 
after territory, but to commit depredations upon 
their settlements, and to attempt to chastise 
them at their very thi^esholds, they drew down 
upon themselves the wrath of a people which 
is not slow to anger, nor easily appeased ; and 
as far back as the Revolution, if not as the 
colonizing of Massachusetts, their breasts were 
filled with a hatred of the whites, deadly 
and unslumbering. Through all our subse- 
quent transactions vnth them, this feeling has 
been increasing in magnitude and intensity : 
and recent events have carried it to a pitch 
which will render it enduring forever, perhaps 
not in its activity, but certainly in its bitterness. 



S-22 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

Whether more amicable relations with the 
\Yhites during the first settlements made upon 
this continent by the Europeans would have 
changed materially the ultimate destiny of the 
aboriginal tribes, is a question about which 
diversities of opinion may well be entertained ; 
but it is not to be considered here. 

The fierce, and bloody, and continuous op. 
position which the Indians have made from the 
first to the encroachments of the Anglo-Ameri- 
cans is matter of history : and close scrutiny 
will show that the great instigators of that op- 
position have always, or nearly so, been rene- 
gade white men. Scattered through the tribes 
east of the Alleghanies, before and during the 
American Revolution, there were many such 
miscreants. Among the Western tribes, during 
the early settlement of Kentucky and Ohio, and 
at the period of the last war with Great Britain, 
there were a number, some of them men of 
talent and great activity. One of the boldest 
and most notorious of these latter was one 
whom we have had frequent occasion to men- 
tion, Simon Giety — ^for many years the scourge 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 223 

of the infant settlements in tlie West, the terror 
of women, and the bugaboo of children. This 
man was an adopted member of the great 
"Wyandot nation, among whom he ranked high 
as an expert hunter, a brave warrior, and a pow- 
erful orator. His influence extended through 
all the tribes of the West, and was generally 
exerted to incite the Indians to expeditions 
against the " Stations " of Kentucky, and to acts 
of cruelty to their white prisoners. The blood- 
iest counsel was usually his ; his was the voice 
which was raised loudest against his country- 
men, who were preparing the way for the intro- 
duction of civilization and Christianity into 
this glorious region ; and in all gi^eat attacks 
upon the frontier settlements he was one of 
the prime movers, and among the prominent 
leaders. 

Of the causes of that venomous hatred, which 
rankled in the bosom of Simon Girty against his 
countrymen, we have two or three versions: 
such as, that he early imbibed a feeling of con- 
tempt and abhorrence of civilized life, from the 
brutality of his father, the lapse from virtue of 



224 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

his mother, and the corruptions of the com 
munity in which he had passed his boyhood ; 
that, while acting with bravery against the 
Indians on the Virginia border, he was stung to 
the quick, and deeply o£[ended by the appoint- 
ment to a station over his head, of one who was 
his junior in years, and had rendered nothing 
like his services to the frontiers ; and that, when 
attached as a scout to Dunmore's expedition, an 
indignity was heaped upon him which thor- 
oughly soured his nature, and drove him to the 
Indians, that he might more effectually execute 
a vengeance which he swore to wreak. The 
last reason assigned for his defection and ani- 
mosity is the most probable of the three, rests 
upon good authority, and seems sufficient, his 
character considered, to account for his desertion 
and subsequent career among the Indians. 

The history of the indignity alluded to, as it has 
reached the writer * from one who was associated 
with Girty and a partaker in it, is as follows : 
The two were acting as scouts in the expedition 
set on foot by Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, 

* Gallagher. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 225 

m the year 1774, against the Indian towns of 
Ohio. The two divisions of the force raised for 
this expedition, the one commanded by Governor 
Dunmore in person, the other by General 
Andrew Lewis, were by the orders of the Gov- 
ernor to form a junction at Point Pleasant, where 
the Great Kanawha empties into the Ohio. At 
this place, General Lewis arrived with his com- 
mand on the eleventh or twelfth of September ; 
but after remaining here two or three weeks in 
anxious expectation of the approach of the other 
division, he received despatches from the Gov- 
ernor informing him that Dunmore had changed 
his plan, and determined to march at once 
against the villages on the Scioto, and ordering 
him to cross the Ohio immediately and join him 
as speedily as possible. It was during the delay 
at the Point that the incident occurred which is 
supposed to have had such a tremendous in- 
fluence upon Girty's after-life. He and his as- 
sociate scout had rendered some two or three 
months' services, for which they had as yet 
drawn no part of their pay ; and in their present 

idleness they discovered means of enjoyment, of 
IS 



226 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

whicli they had not money to avail themselves. 
In this strait they called upon General Lewis in 
person at his quarters and demanded their pay. 
For some unknown cause this was refused, which 
produced a slight murmuring on the part of the 
applicants, when General Lewis cursed them, and 
stiTick them several severe blows over their heads 
with his cane. Girty's associate was not much 
hurt ; but he himself was so badly wounded on 
the forehead or temple that the blood streamed 
down his cheek and side to the floor. He 
quickly turned to leave the apaii^ment, but, on 
reaching the door, wheeled round, planted his 
feet firmly upon the sill, braced an arm against 
either side of the frame, fixed his keen eyes 
unflinchingly upon the general, uttered the ex- 
clamation, " By God^ si?% your quarters shall 
swim in hlood for this ! " and instantly disap- 
peared beyond pursuit. 

General Lewis was not much pleased with 
the sudden and apparently causeless change 
which Governor Dunmore had made in the plan 
of the expedition. Nevertheless, he immedi- 
ately prepared to obey the new orders, and had 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 227 

given directions for tlie construction of rafts 
upon wliich to cross tlie Ohio, when, before day- 
light on the morning of the 10th of October, 
some of the scouts suddenly entered the encamp- 
ment with the information that an immense 
body of Indians was just at hand, hastening 
upon the Point. This was the force of the 
brave and skilful chief Cornstalk, whose genius 
and valor were so conspicuous on that day, 
throughout the whole of which raged the 
hardly-contested and most bloody Battle of the 
Point Girty had fled from General Lewis im- 
mediately to the chief Cornstalk, forsworn his 
white nature, and leagued himself with the Red- 
man forever ; and mth the Indians he was now 
advancing, under the cover of night, to surprise 
the Virginian camp. At the distance of only a 
mile from the Point Cornstalk was met by a de- 
tachment of the Virginians, under the command 
of Colonel Charles Lewis, a brother of the gen- 
eral ; and here, about sunrise on the 10th of Oc- 
tober, 1774, commenced one of the longest, 
severest, and bloodiest battles ever fought upon 
the Western frontiers. It terminated, as we 



528 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

have seen, about sunset, with the defeat of the 
Indians, it is true, but mth a loss to the whites 
which carried mourning into many a mansion of 
the Old Dominion, and which was keenly felt 
throughout the country at the time, and remem- 
bered with sorrow long after. 

Girty having thrown himself among the In- 
dians, as has been related, and embraced their 
cause, now retreated with them into the interior 
of Ohio, and ever after followed their fortunes 
without swerving. On arriving at the towns of 
the Wyandots, he was adopted into that tribe, 
and established himseK at Upper Sandusky. 
Being active, of a strong constitution, fearless 
in the extreme, and at all times ready to join 
their war parties, he soon become very popular 
among his new associates, and a man of much 
consequence. He was engaged in most of the 
expeditions against the frontier settlements of 
Pennsylvania and Virginia — always brave and 
always cruel — till the year 1778, when occurred 
an incident which, as it the only bright spot ap- 
parent on the whole dark career of the rene- 
gade, shall be related with some particularity. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 229 

Girty happened to be at Lower Sandusky 
this year, when Kenton — known at that period 
as Simon Butler — was brought in to be exe- 
cuted by a party of Indians who had made him 
a prisoner on the banks of the Ohio. Years be- 
fore, Kenton and Girty had been bosom com- 
panions at Fort Pitt, and served together subse- 
quently in the commencement of Dunmoro's ex- 
pedition ; but the victim was already blackened 
for the stake, and the renegade failed to recog- 
nize in him his former associate. Girty had at 
this time but just returned from an expedition 
against the frontier of Pennsylvania which had 
been less successful than he had anticipated, and 
was enraged by disappointment. He, there- 
fore, as soon as Kenton was brought into the 
village, began to give vent to a portion of his 
spleen by cuffing and kicking the prisoner, whom 
he eventually knocked down. He knew that 
Kenton had come from Kentucky ; and this 
harsh treatment was bestowed in part, it is 
thought, to frighten the prisoner into answers 
of such questions as he might wish to ask 
him. He then inquired how many men there 



230 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

were in Kentucky. Kenton could not answer 
this question, but ran over the names and ranks 
of such of the officers as he at the time recollected. 
" Do you know William Stewart ? " asked Girty. 
" Perfectly well," replied Kenton ; " he is an 
old and intimate acquaintance." " Ah ! what is 
your name, then ? " " Simon Butler," answered 
Kenton ; and on the instant of this announce 
ment the hardened renegade caught his old com- 
rade by the hand, lifted him from the ground, 
pressed him to his bosom, asked his forgiveness 
for having treated him so brutally, and promised 
to do everything in his power to save his life 
and set him at liberty. " Syme ! " said he, weep- 
ing like a child, " you are condemned to die, 
but it shall go hard with me, I tell you, but I 
will save you from thaty 

There have been various accounts given of 
this interesting scene, and all agree in represent- 
ing Girty as having been deeply affected, and 
moved for the moment to penitence and 
tears. The foundation of McClung's detail 
of the speeches made upon the occasion was 
a manuscript dictated by Kenton himself a 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 231 

number of years before his death. From this 
writer we therefore quote : 

" As soon as Girt-y heard the name he became 
strongly agitated ; and, springing from his seat, 
he threw his arms around Kenton's neck, and em- 
braced him mth much emotion. Then turning 
to the assembled warriors, who remained aston- 
ished spectators of this extraordinary scene, he 
addressed them in a short speech, which the deep 
earnestness of his tone, and the energy of his 
gesture, rendered eloquent. He informed them 
that the prisoner, whom they had just con- 
demned to the stake, was his ancient comrade 
and bosom friend ; that they had traveled the 
same warpath, slept upon the same blanket and 
dwelt in the same wigwam. He entreated 
them to have compassion on his feelings — to 
spare him the agony of witnessing the tor- 
ture of an old friend by the hands of his 
adopted brothers, and not to refuse so trifling a 
favor as the life of a white man to the earnest 
intercession of one who had proved, by three 
years' faithful service, that he was sincerely and 
zealously devoted to the cause of the Indians. 



232 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

"The speecli was listened to in unbroken 
silence. As soon as he had finished, several 
chiefs expressed their approbation by a deep 
guttural interjection, while others were equally 
as forward in making known their objections to 
the proposal. They urged that his fate had al- 
ready been determined in a large and solemn 
council, and that they would be acting like 
squaws to change their minds every hour. 
They insisted upon the flagrant misdemeanors 
of Kenton — that he had not only stolen their 
horses, but had flashed his gun at one of their 
young men — that it was vain to suppose that so 
bad a man could ever become an Indian at 
heart, like their brother Girty — that the Ken- 
tuckians were all alike — very bad people — and 
ought to be killed as fast as they were taken — 
and finally, they observed that many of their 
people had come from a distance, solely to assist 
at the torture of the prisoner, and pathetically 
painted the disappointment and chagrin with 
which they would hear that all their trouble had 
been for nothing. 

" Girty listened with obvious impatience to 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 233 

the young warriors who had so ably argued 
against a reprieve — and starting to his feet, as 
soon as the others had concluded, he urged his 
former request with great earnestness. He 
briefly, but strongly recapitulated his own sei'v- 
ices, and the many and weighty instances of 
attachment he had given. He asked if lie could 
be suspected of partiality to the whites ? When 
had he ever before interceded for any of that 
hated race ? Had he not brought seven scalps 
home with him from the last expedition ? and 
had he not submitted seven white prisoners that 
very evening to their discretion ? Had he ever 
expressed a wish that a single captive should be 
saved ? Ihis was his first and should be his 
last request : for if they refused to A^m, what 
was never refused to the intercession of one of 
their natural chiefs, he would look upon himseM 
as disgraced in their eyes, and considered as un- 
worthy of confidence. Which of their own 
natural warriors had been more zealous than 
himself? From what expedition had he ever 
shrunk? — what white man had ever seen his 
back? Whose tomahawk had been bloodier 



234: I^IFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

than his ? He would say no more. He asked 
it as a first and last favor, as an evidence that 
they approved of his zeal and fidelity, that the 
life of his bosom friend might be spared. Fresh 
speakers arose upon each side, and the debate 
was carried on for an hour and a half with great 
heat and energy. 

" During the whole of this time, Kenton's 
feelings may readily be imagined. He could 
not understand a syllable of what was said. 
He saw that Girty spoke mth deep earnestness, 
and that the eyes of the assembly were often 
turned upon himself with various expressions. 
He felt satisfied that his friend was pleading 
for his life, and that he was violently opposed 
by a large part of the council. At length the 
war-club was produced, and the final vote 
taken. Kenton watched its progress with thrill- 
ing emotion — which yielded to the most rapt- 
urous delight, as he perceived that those who 
struck the floor of the council-house were decid- 
edly inferior in number to those who passed it 
in silence. Having thus succeeded in his benev- 
olent purpose, Girty lost no time in attending 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 235 

to the comfort of his fiiend. He led him into 
his own wigwam, and from his own store gave 
him a pair of moccasins and leggins, a breech- 
cloth, a hat, a coat, a handkerchief for his neck 
and another for his head." 

In the course of a few weeks, and after pass- 
ing through some further difficulties, in which 
the renegade again stood by him faithfully, 
Kenton was sent to Detroit, from which place he 
effected his escape and returned to Kentucky. 
Girty remained with the Indians, retaining his 
old influence, and continuing his old career ; and 
four years after the occurrences last detailed, in 
1782, we find him a prominent figure in one of 
the blackest tragedies that have ever disgraced 
the annals of mankind. It is generally believed 
by the old settlers and their immediate descend 
ants, that the influence of Girty at this period 
over the confederate tribes of the whole north 
west, was almost supreme. He had, it is true 
no delegated authority, and of course was pow 
erless as regarded the final determination of any 
important measure ; but his voice was permitted 
in council among the chiefs and his inflaming 



236 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

harangues were always listened to with delight 
by the young warriors. Among the sachems 
is and other head-men, he was what may well be 
styled a " power behind the throne " ; and as it 
is well known that this unseen power is often 
" greater than the throne itself," it may reason- 
ably be presumed that Girty's influence was in 
reality all which it is supposed to have been. 
The horrible event alluded to above was the 
burning of Oraivfordj and as a knowledge of 
this dark passage in his life is necessary to a full 
development of the character of the renegade, an 
account of the incident, as much condensed as 
possible, will be given from the histories of the 
unfortunate campaign of that year. 

The frontier settlements of Pennsylvania and 
Virginia had been greatly harassed by repeated 
attacks from bands of Indians under Girty and 
some of the Wyandot and Shawanee chiefs, dur- 
ing the whole period of the Revolutionary War ; 
and early in the spring of 1782 these savage 
incursions became so frequent and galling, and 
the conunon mode of fighting the Indians on the 
line of frontier, when forced to do so in self- 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 237 

defense, proved so inefficient, that it was found 
absolutely necessary to carry the war into the 
country of the enemy. For this purpose an 
expedition against the Wyandot towns on the 
Sandusky was gotten up in May, and put under 
the command of Colonel William Cra^vford, a 
brave soldier of the Revolution. This force, 
amounting to upward of four hundred mounted 
volunteers, commenced its march through the 
wilderness northwest of the Ohio River, on the 
25th of May, and reached the plains of the San- 
dusky on the 5th of June. A spirit of insubor- 
dination had manifested itself during tbe march, 
and on one occasion a small body of the volun- 
teers abandoned the expedition and returned 
to their homes. The disaffection which had pre- 
vailed on the march continued to disturb the com- 
mxander and divide the ranks, after their arrival 
upon the very site (now deserted temporarily) 
of one of the enemy's principal towns ; and the 
officers, yielding to the wishes of their men, 
had actually determined, in a hasty council, to 
abandon the objects of the expedition and return 
home, if they did not meet with the Indians in 



238 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

large force in tlie course of another day's march. 
Scarcely had this determination been announced, 
however, when Colonel Crawford received in- 
telligence from his scouts of the near approach 
of a large body of the enemy. Preparations 
were at once made for the engagement, which 
almost instantly commenced. It w^as now about 
the middle of the afternoon; and from this 
time till dusk the firing was hot and galling on 
both sides. About dark the Indians drew off 
their force, when the volunteers encamped upon 
the battle-ground and slept on their arms. 

The next day the battle was renewed by 
small detachments of the enemy, but no general 
engagement took place. The Indians had 
suffered severely from the close firing which en- 
sued upon their first attack, and were now ma- 
neuvering and awaiting the amval of reinforce- 
ments. No sooner had night closed upon this 
madly spent day, than the officers assembled in 
council. They were unanimous in the opinion 
that the enemy, already as they thought more 
numerous than their own force, was rapidly 
increasing in numbers. They therefore deter- 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 230 

mined, without a dissenting voice, to retreat 
that night, as rapidly as circumstances would 
permit. This resolution was at once announced 
to the whole body of volunteers, and the arrange- 
ments necessary to carry it into effect were im- 
mediately commenced. By nine or ten o'clock 
everything was in readiness — the troops properly 
disposed — and the retreat begun in good order. 
But unfortunately, says McClung, " they had 
scarcely moved an hundred paces, when the 
report of several rifles was heard in the rear, in 
the direction of the Indian encampment. The 
troops instantly became very unsteady. At 
length a solitary voice, in the front rank, called 
out that their design was discovered, and that 
the Indians would soon be upon them. Nothing 
more was necessary. The cavalry were instantly 
broken ; and, as usual, each man endeavored to 
save himself as he best could. A prodigious 
uproar ensued, which quickly communicated to 
the enemy that the white men had routed them- 
selves, and that they had nothing to do but pick 
up stragglers." A scene of confusion and car- 
nage now took place which almost beggars 



240 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

description. All that night and for the whole of 
the next day, the work of hunting out, running 
down, and butchering continued without inter- 
mission. But a relation of these sad occurrences 
does not properly belong to this narrative. The 
brief account of the expedition which has been 
given was deemed necessary as an introduction 
to the event which now claims attention. 

Among the prisoners taken by the Indians 
were Colonel Crawford, the commander, and 
Dr. Knight, of Pittsburg, who had gone upon 
the expedition as surgeon. On the 10th of 
June these gentlemen were marched toward 
the principal town of the Wyandots, where they 
arrived the next day. Here they beheld the 
mangled bodies of some of their late companions, 
and were doomed to see others, yet living, 
butchered before their eyes. Here, likewise, 
they saw Simon Girty, who appeared to take an 
infernal delight in gazing upon the dead bodies, 
and viewing the tortures which were inflicted 
npon the living. The features of this wretch, 
who had kno'svn Colonel Crawford at Fort Pitt, 
were clad in malicious smiles at beholding the 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 241 

brave soldier in his present strait ; and toward 
Dr. Knight lie conducted himself with insolence 
as well as barbarity. The Colonel was soon 
stripped naked, painted black, and commanded 
to sit down by a large fire which was blazing 
close at hand ; and in this situation he was sur- 
rounded by all the old women and young boys 
of the town, and severely beaten with sticks 
and clubs. While this was going on, the In- 
dians were sinking a large stake in the ground, 
and building a circle of brushwood and hickory 
sticks around it, with a diameter of some twelve 
or fifteen feet. These preparations completed, 
CraAvford's hands were tied firmly behind his 
back, and by his wrists he was bound to the 
stake. The pile was then fired in several places, 
and the quick flames cm-led into the air. Girty 
took no part in these operations, but sat upon 
his horse at a little distance, obser\dng them 
with a malignant satisfaction. Catching his 
eye at the moment the pile was fired, Crawford 
inquired of the renegade if the savages really 
meant to burn him. Girty coldly answered 

" Yes," and the Colonel calmly resigned himself 
16 



242 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

to his fate. The whole scene is minutely de- 
scribed in the several histories which have been 
written of this unfortunate expedition ; but the 
particulars are too horrible to be dwelt upon 
here. For more than two hours did the gallant 
soldier survive at that ilame-girdled stake ; and 
during the latter haK of this time he was put 
to every torture which savage ingenuity could 
devise and hellish vengeance execute. Once 
only did a word escape his lips. In the ex- 
tremity of his agony he again caught the eye of 
Girty ; and he is reported to have exclaimed at 
this time, " Girty ! Girty ! shoot me through 
the heart ! Do not refuse me ! quick ! — quick ! " 
And it is said that the monster merely replied, 
" Don't you see I have no gun, Colonel ? " then 
burst into a loud laugh and turned away. 
Crawford said no more ; he sank repeatedly 
beneath the pain and suffocation which he en- 
dured, and was as often aroused by a new tor- 
ture ; but in a little while the " vital spark " 
fled, and the black and swollen body lay sense- 
less at the foot of the stake. 

Dr. Knight was now removed from the spot, 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. M3 

and placed under the charge of a Shawanee 
warrior to be taken to Chillicothe, where he 
was to share in the terrible fate of his late com- 
panion. The Doctor, however, was fortunate 
enough to effect his escape, and after wandering 
through the wilderness for three weeks, in a 
state boft'dering on starvation, he reached Pitts- 
burg. He had been an eye-witness of all the 
tortures inflicted upon the Colonel, and subse- 
quently published a journal of the expedition ; 
and it is from this that the particulars have 
been derived of the several accounts which 
have been published of the hurning of Craw- 
ford.^ 

It was not to be expected that such a man 
as Simon Girty could, for a great many years, 
maintain his influence among a people headed 
by chiefs and warriors like Black-Hood, Buck- 
ongahelas. Little Tiu-tle, Tuthe, and so forth. 
Accordingly we find the ascendency of the 
renegade at its height about the period of the 
expedition against Bryant's Station, already 
described ; and not long after this it began to 

♦ Gallagher. 



244 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

wane, when, discontent and disappointment in 
ducing him to give way to his natural appetites, 
he partook freely of all intoxicating liquors, and 
in the course of a few years became a beastly 
drunkard. It is believed that he at one time 
seriously meditated an abandonment of the In- 
dians and a return to the whites ; and an anec- 
dote related by McClung, in his notice of the 
emigration to Kentucky, by way of the Ohio 
River, in the year 1785, would seem to give 
color to this opinion. But if the intention ever 
was seriously indulged, it is most likely that 
fear of the treatment he would receive on be- 
ing recognized in the frontier settlements, on 
account of his many bloody enormities, pre- 
vented him from carrying it into effect. He re- 
mained with the Indians in Ohio till Wayne's 
victory, when he forsook the scenes of his for- 
mer influence and savage greatness, and estab- 
lished himself somewhere in Upper Canada. He 
fought in the bloody engagement which termi- 
nated in the defeat and butchery of St. Clair's 
army in 1791, and was at the battle of the Fal- 
len Timbers in 1794, but he had no command in 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 245 

either of those engagements, and was not at this 
time a man of any particular influence. 

In Canada, Girty was something of a trader, 
but gave himself up almost wholly to intoxicat- 
ing drinks, and became a perfect sot. At this 
time he suifered much from rheumatism and 
other diseases ; but he had grown a gi^eat 
braggart, and amidst his severest pains he would 
entertain his associates, and all who were will- 
ing to listen, with stories of his past prowess and 
cruelty. He had now the most exaggerated no- 
tions of the honor attaching to the character of 
a great warrior ; and for some years before his 
death his constantly-expressed wish was, that he 
might find an opportunity of signalizing his 
last years by some daring action, and die upon 
the field of battle. Whether sincere in this 
wish or not, the opportunity was afforded him. 
He fought with the Indians at Proctor's defeat 
on the Thames in 1814, and was among those 
who were here cut down and trodden under 
foot by Colonel Johnson's regiment of mounted 
Kentuckians. 

Of the birthplace and family of Simon Girty 



246 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

we have not been able to procure any satisfac- 
tory information. It is generally supposed, 
from tlie fact that nearly all of his early compan- 
ions were Virginians, that he was a native of 
the Old Dominion ; but one of the early pio- 
neers (yet living in Franklin County), who knew 
Girty at Pittsburg before his defection, thinks 
that his native State was Pennsylvania. This 
venerable gentleman is likewise of the opinion, 
that it was the disappointment of not getting 
an office to which he aspired that first filled 
Girty's breast mth hatred of the whites, and 
roused in him those dark thoughts and bitter 
feelings which subsequently, on the occurrence 
of the first good opportunity, induced him to 
desert his countrymen and league himself with 
the Indians. That Girty was an applicant or 
candidate for some office, and was defeated in 
his efforts to obtain it by an individual who 
was generally considered less desenang of it 
than he, my informant has distinct recollections ; 
and also remembers that his defeat was occa- 
sioned principally through the exertions, in be- 
half of his opponent, of Colonel William Craw- 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 247 

ford. This affords a key to tlie cause of Girty's 
iiendlike conduct toward tlie Colonel when, 
some ten years afterward, the latter was bound 
to the stake at one of the Wyandot towns, and 
in the extremity of his agony besought the rene- 
gade to put an end to his misery by shooting 
him through the heart : it offers no apology, 
however, for Girty's brutality on that occasion. 
The career of the renegade, commenced by 
treason and pursued through blood to the knee, 
affords a good lesson, which might well receive 
some remark; but this narrative has already 
extended to an unexpected length, and must 
here close. It is a dark record ; but the his- 
tories of all new countries contain somewhat 
similar passages, and their preservation in this 
form may not be altogether without useful- 



ness.* 



* Gallagher. 



CHAPTER XVm. 

Season of repose — Colonel Boone buys land — Builds a log- 
house and goes to farming — Kentucky organized on a new 
basis — The three Counties united in one district, and Courts 
established — Colonel Boone surprised by Indians — Escapes 
by a bold stratagem — Increase of emigration — Transporta- 
tion of goods commences — Primitive manners and customs 
of the settlers — Hunting — The autumn hunt — The hunting 
camp — Qualification of a good hunter — Animals hunted — 
The process of building and furnishing a cabin — The house- 
warming. 

After the series of Indian hostilities recorded 
in the chapters immediately preceding this, 
Kentucky enjoyed a season of comparative re- 
pose. The cessation of hostilities between the 
United States and Great Britain in 1783, and 
the probable speedy cession of the British posts 
on the Northwestern frontier, discouraged the 
Indians, stopped their customary incursions on 
the Kentuckians, and gave them leisure to ac- 
quire and cultivate new tracts of land. 

Colonel Boone, notwithstanding the heavy 

US 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 249 

loss of money (which has been already men- 
tioned) as he was on his journey to North Caro- 
lina, was now able to purchase several locations of 
land. He had been compensated for his military 
services by the Commonwealth of Virginia, to 
which Kentucky still belonged. On one of his 
locations he built a comfortable log-house and 
recommenced fanning, with his usual industry 
and perseverance, varying the pursuits of agri- 
culture with occasional indulgence in his favor- 
ite sport of hunting. 

In 1783 Kentucky organized herself on a 
new basis, Virginia having united three counties 
into one district, having a court of common law 
and chancery for the whole territory which 
now forms the State of Kentucky. The seat of 
justice at first was at Harrodsburg; but for 
want of convenient accommodations for the 
sessions of the courts, they were subsequently 
removed to Danville, which, in consequence, 
became for a season the center and capital of 
the State.* 

A singular and highly characteristic adven- 

* Perking. Peck. 



250 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

tui'e, in wluch Boone was engaged about this 
time, is thus narrated by Mr. Peck : 

"Though no hostile attacks from Indians 
disturbed the settlements, still there were small 
parties discovered or signs seen on the frontier 
settlements. On one occasion about this period 
four Indians came to the farm of Colonel Boone, 
and nearly succeeded in taking him prisoner. 
The particulars are given as they were narrated 
by Boone himself, at the wedding of a grand- 
daughter a few months before his decease, and 
they furnish an illustration of his habitual self- 
possession and tact with Indians. At a short dis- 
tance from his cabin he had raised a small pat€h 
of tobacco to supply his neighbors (for Boone 
never used the ^filthy weed' himself), the 
amount, perhaps, of one hundred and fifty 
hills. 

" As a shelter for curing it, he had built an 
enclosure of rails, a dozen feet in height, and 
covered it with cane and grass. Stalks of to- 
bacco are usually split and strung on sticks 
about four feet in length. The ends of these 
are laid on poles, placed across the tobacco 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 261 

house, and in tiers, one above the other to the 
roof. Boone had fixed his temporary shelter 
in such a manner as to have three tiers. He 
had covered the lower tier, and the tobacco 
had become dry, when he entered the shelter 
for the purpose of removing the sticks to the 
upper tier, preparatory to gathering the re- 
mainder of the crop. He had hoisted up the 
sticks from the lower to the second tier and 
was standing on the poles that supported it 
while raising the sticks to the upper tier, when 
four stout Indians with guns entered the low 
door and called him by name. ' Now, Boone, 
we got you. You no get away more. We 
carry you off to Chillicothe this time. You no 
cheat us any more.' Boone looked down upon 
their upturned faces, saw their loaded guns 
pointed at his breast, and recognizing some of 
his old friends the Shawanees, who had made 
him prisoner near the Blue Licks in 1778, 
coolly and pleasantly responded, 'Ah, old 
friends, glad to see you.' Perceiving that they 
manifested impatience to have him come down, 
he told them he was quite willing to go with 



252 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

them, and only begged they would wait where 
they were, and watch him closely, until he could 
finish removing his tobacco. 

While parleying with them, inquiring after 
old acquaintances, and proposing to give them 
his tobacco when cured, he diverted their atten- 
tion from his purpose until he had collected 
together a number of sticks of dry tobacco, and 
so turned them as to fall between the poles 
directly in their faces. At the same instant he 
jumped upon them with as much of the dry 
tobacco as he could gather in his arms, filling 
their mouths and eyes with its pungent dust ; 
and blinding and disabling them from following 
him, rushed out and hastened to his cabin, 
where he had the means of defense. Notwith- 
standing the narrow escape, he could not resist 
the temptation, after retreating some fifteen or 
twenty yards, to look round and see the success 
of his achievement. The Indians, blinded and 
nearly suffocated, were stretching out their 
hands and feeling about in different directions, 
calling him by name and cursing him for a 
rogue, and themselves for fools. The old man, 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 253 

in telling the story, imitated their gestures and 
tones of voice with great glee. 

Emigration to Kentucky was now rapidly 
on the increase, and many new settlements were 
formed. The means of establishing comfortable 
homesteads increased. Horses, cattle, and swine 
were rapidly increasing in number, and trading 
in various commodities became more general. 
From Philadelphia merchandise was trans- 
ported to Pittsburg on pact-horses, and 
thence taken down the Ohio River in flat- 
boats and distributed among the settlements 
on its banks. Country stores, land specula- 
tors, and paper money made their appearance, 
affording a clear augury of the future activity 
of the West in commercial industry and enter- 
prise. 

Most of the settlers came from the interior of 
North Carolina and Virginia ; and brought with 
them the manners and customs of those States. 
These manners and customs were primitive 
enough. The following exceedingly graphic 
description, which we transcribe from " Dod- 
dridge's Notes," will afford the reader a compe- 



254 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

tent idea of rural life in tlie times of Daniel 
Boone. 

*^ Hunting. — This was an important part of 
tlie employment of the early settlers of this 
country. For some years the woods supplied 
them with the greater amount of their subsist- 
ence, and with regard to some families, at certain 
times, the whole of it ; for it was no uncommon 
thing for families to live several months with- 
out a mouthful of bread. It frequently hap- 
pened that there was no breakfast until it was 
obtained from the woods. Fur and peltry were 
the people's money. They had nothing else to 
give in exchange for rifles, salt, and iron, on the 
other side of the mountains. 

" The fall and early part of the winter was 
the season for hunting deer, and the whole of 
the winter, including part of the spring, for 
bears and fur-skinned animals. It was a cus- 
tomary saying that fur is good during every 
month in the name of which the letter r 
occurs. 

" The class of hunters with whorj^ I was best 
acquainted, were those whose hunting ranges 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 255 

were on tlie eastern side of the river, and at tlie 
distance of eight or nine miles from it. As soon 
as the leaves were pretty well down, and the 
weather became rainy, accomj)anied with light 
snows, these men, after acting the part of hus- 
bandmen, so far as the state of warfare permitted 
them to do so, soon began to feel that they were 
hunters. They became uneasy at home. Every- 
thing about them became disagreeable. The 
house was too warm. The feather-bed too soft, 
and even the good wife was not thought, for the 
time being, a proper companion. The mind of 
the hunter was wholly occupied with the camp 
and chase. 

" I have often seen them get up early in the 
morning at this season, walk hastily out, and 
look anxiously to the woods and snuff the au- 
tumnal winds with the highest rapture, then re- 
turn into the house and cast a quick and atten- 
tive look at the riile which was always sus- 
pended to a joist by a couple of buck horns, or 
little forks. His hunting dog, understanding 
the intentions of his master, would wag his 
tail, and by every blandishment in his power 



256 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

express his readiness to accompany him to the 
woods. 

" A day was soon appointed for the march of 
the little cavalcade to the camp. Two or three 
horses furnished with pack-saddles were loaded 
with flour, Indian meal, blankets, and every- 
thing else requisite for the use of the hunter. 

" A hunting camp, or what was called a half- 
faced cabin, was of the following form ; the back 
part of it was sometimes a large log ; at the dis- 
tance of eight or ten feet from this, two stakes 
were set in the ground a few inches apart, and 
at the distance of eight or ten feet from these, 
two more, to receive the ends of the poles for 
the sides of the camp. The whole slope of the 
roof, was from the front to the back. The 
covering was made of slabs, skins, or blankets, 
or, if in the spring of the year, the bark of 
hickory or ash trees. The front was entirely 
open. The fire was built directly before this 
opening. The cracks between the logs were 
filled with moss. Dry leaves served for a bed. 
It is thus that a couple of men, in a few hours 
will construct for themselves a temporary, but 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 267 

tolerably comfortable defense, from the inclemr 
encies of the weather. The beaver, otter, 
muskrat and squirrel are scarcely their equals in 
despatch in fabricating for themselves a covert 
from the tempest ! 

" A little more pains would have made a 
hunting camp a defense against the Indians. 
A cabin ten feet square, bullet proof, and fur- 
nished with port-holes would have enabled two 
or three hunters to hold twenty Indians at bay 
for any length of time. But this precaution 
I believe was never attended to ; hence the 
hunters were often surprised and killed in their 
camps. 

" The site for the camp was selected with all 
the sagacity of the woodsman, so as to have it 
sheltered by the surrounding hills from every 
wind, but more especially from those of the 
north and west. 

*' An uncle of mine, of the name of Samuel 

Teter, occupied the same camp for several years 

in succession. It was situated on one of the 

southern branches of Cross Creek. Although I 

lived for many years not more than fifteen miles 
17 



258 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

from the place, it was not till within a very few 
years ago that I discovered its situation. It 
was shown me by a gentleman living in the 
neighborhood. Viewing the hills round about it 
I soon perceived the sagacity of the hunter in 
the site for his camp. Not a wind could touch 
him ; and unless by the report of his gun or the ^ 
sound of his ax, it would have been by mere 
accident if an Indian had discovered his conceal- 
ment. 

" Hunting was not a mere ramble in pursuit 
of game, in which there was nothing of skill and 
calculation ; on the contrary, the hunter, before 
he set out in the morning, was informed, by the 
state of the weather, in what situation he might 
reasonably expect to meet with his game; 
whether on the bottoms, sides or tops of the hills. 
In stormy weather, the deer always seek the 
most sheltered places, and the leeward side of 
the hills. In rainy weather, in which there is 
not much wind, they keep in the open woods on 
the highest ground. 

" In every situation it was requisite for the 
hunter to ascertain the course of the wind, so aa 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 259 

to get the leeward of the game. This he ef- 
fected by putting his finger in his mouth, and 
holding it there until it became warm, then 
holding it above his head, the side which first 
becomes cold shows which way the wind blows. 

" As it was requisite too for the hunter to 
know the cardinal points, he had only to observe 
the trees to ascertain them. The bark of an 
aged tree is thicker and much rougher on the 
noi-th than on the south side. The same thing 
may be said of the moss : it is much thicker and 
stronger on the north than on the south side of 
the trees. 

" The whole business of the hunter consists of 
a succession of intrigues. From morning till 
night he was on the alert to gain the wind of 
his game, and approach them without being dis- 
covered. If he succeeded in killing a deer, he 
skinned it, and hung it up out of the reach of 
the wolves, and immediately resumed the chase 
till the close of the evening, when he bent his 
course toward the camp ; when he arrived there 
he kindled up his fire, and together vnth hia 
fellow hunter, cooked his supper. The supper 



260 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

finished, tlie adventures of tlie day furnished the 
tales for the evening. The spike buck, the two 
and three-pronged buck, the doe and barren 
doe, figured through their anecdotes with great 
advantage. It should seem that after hunting 
awhile on the same ground, the hunters became 
acquainted with nearly all the gangs of deer 
within their range, so as to know each fiock of 
them when they saw them. Often some old 
buck, by the means of his superior sagacity and 
watchfulness, saved his little gang from the 
hunter's skill, by giving timely notice of his 
approach. The cunning of the hunter and that 
of the old buck were staked against each other, 
and it frequently happened that at the conclusion 
of the hunting season, the old fellow was left 
the free uninjured tenant of his forest ; but if 
his rival succeeded in bringing him down, the 
victory was followed by no small amount of 
boasting on the part of the conqueror. 

"When the weather was not suitable for 
hunting, the skins and carcasses of the game 
were brought in and disposed of. 

" Many of the hunters rested from their labors 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 261 

on the Sabbath day ; some from a motive of 
piety ; others said that whenever they hunted 
on Sunday, they were sure to have bad luck on 
the rest of the week. 

"The House- Warming. — I will proceed to 
state the usual manner of settling a young couple 
in the world. 

" A spot was selected on a piece of land of 
one of the parents, for their habitation. A day 
was appointed shortly after their marriage, for 
commencing the work of building their cabin. 
The fatigue-party consisted of choppers, whose 
business it was to fell the trees and cut them oft* 
at proper length. A man with a team for haul- 
ing them to the place and arranging them, prop- 
erly assorted, at the sides and ends of the 
building ; a carpenter, if such he might be called, 
whose business it was to search the woods for 
a proper tree for making clapboards for the roof. 
The tree for this purpose must be straight- 
grained, and from three to four feet in diameter. 
The boards were split four feet long, with a 
large frow, and as wide as the timber would 
allow. They were used without planing or 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

shaving. Another division were employed In 
getting puncheons for the floor of the cabin ; 
this was done by slitting trees, about eighteen 
inches in diameter, and hewing the faces of them 
with a broad-ax. They were half the length 
of the floor they were intended to make. The 
materials for the cabin were mostly prepared on 
the first day, and sometimes the foundation laid 
in the evening. The second day was allotted 
for the raising. 

" In the morning of the next day the neigh- 
bors collected for the raising. The first thing 
to be done was the election of four corner men, 
whose business it was to notch and place the 
logs. The rest of the company furnished them 
with the timbers. In the meantime the boards 
and puncheons were collecting for the floor and 
roof, so that by the time the cabin was a few 
rounds high, the sleepers and floor began to be 
laid. The door was made by sawing or cutting 
the logs in one side so as to make an opening 
about three feet wide. This opening was 
secured by upright pieces of timber about three 
inches thick, through which holes were bored 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 2^3 

into the ends of the logs for the purpose of 
pinning them fast. A similar opening, but 
wider, was made at the end for the chimney. 
This was built of logs, and made large, to admit 
of a back and jambs of stone. At the square, 
two end logs projected a foot or eighteen inches 
beyond the wall, to receive the butting poles, as 
they were called, against which the ends of the 
first row of clapboards was supported. The 
roof was formed by making the end logs shorter, 
until a single log formed the comb of the roof, 
on these logs the clapboards were placed, the 
ranges of them lapping some distance over those 
next below them, and kept in their places by 
logs, placed at proper distances upon them. 

"The roof, and sometimes the floor, were 
finished on the same day of the raising. A 
third day was commonly spent by a few car- 
penters in leveling oif the floor, making a clap- 
board door and a table. This last was made of 
a split slab, and supported by f oiu* round legs 
set in auger-holes. Some three-legged stools 
were made in the same manner. Some pins 
stuck in the logs at the back of the house sup- 



264 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

ported some clapboards whicli served for shelves 
for the table furniture. A single fork, placed 
with its lower end in a hole in the -floor, and 
the upper end fastened to a joist, served for a 
bedstead, by placing a pole in the fork with 
one end through a crack between the logs of 
the wall. This front pole was crossed by a 
shorter one within the fork, with its outer end 
through another crack. From the front pole, 
through a crack between the logs of the end of 
the house, the boards were put on which formed 
the bottom of the bed. Sometimes other poles 
were pinned to the fork a little distance above 
these, for the purpose of supporting the front 
and foot of the bed, while the walls were the 
supports of its back and head. A few pegs 
around the walls for a display of the coats of 
the women and hunting-shirts of the men, and 
two small forks or buck-horns to a joist for the 
rifle and shot-pouch, completed the carpenter 
work. 

"In the meantime masons were at work. 
With the heart pieces of the timber of which 
the clapboards were made, they made billets for 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 265 

chunking up tlie cracks between tlie logs of the 
cabin and chimney ; a large bed of mortar was 
made for daubing up these cracks ; a few stones 
formed the back and jambs of the chimney. 

" The cabin being finished, the ceremony of 
house-warming took place, before the young 
couple were permitted to move into it. 

" The house-warming was a dance of a whole 
night's continuance, made up of the relations 
of the bride and groom and their neighbors. 
On the day following the young couple took 
possession of their new mansion." 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Condition of the early settlers as it respects the mechanic 
arts — Want of skilled mechanics — Hominy block and hand- 
mill — Sweeps — Gunpowder — Water mills — Clothing — 
Leather — Farm tools — Wooden ware — Sports — Imitating 
birds — Throwing the tomahawk— Athletic sports — Dancing 
— Shooting at marks — Emigration of the present time com- 
pared with that of the early settlers — Scarcity of Iron — 
Costume — Dwellings — Furniture — Employments — The 
women — Their character — Diet — Indian corn — The great 
improvements in facilitating the early settlement of the 
West — Amusements. 

Before leaving the subject of the actual con- 
dition of the early settlers in the West, we take 
another extract from " Doddridge's Notes," com- 
prising his observations on the state of the me- 
chanic arts among them and an account of some 
of their favorite sports. 

" Mechanic Arts. — ^In giving the history of 
the state of the mechanic arts as they were ex- 
ercised at an early period of the settlement of 
this country, I shall present a people, driven by 

necessity to perform works of mechanical skill, 
^66 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 267 

far beyond what a person enjoying all tlie ad- 
vantages of civilization would expect fi'om 
a population placed in such destitute circum- 
stances. 

"My reader will naturally ask, where were 
their mills for grinding grain? Where their 
tanners for making leather? Where their 
smiths' shops for making and repairing their 
farming utensils ? Who were their carpenters, 
tailors, cabinet-workmen, shoemakers, and 
weavers? The answer is those manufacturers 
did not exist; nor had they any tradesmen, 
who were professedly such. Every family 
were under the necessity of doing every thing for 
themselves as well as they could. The hominy 
block and hand-mills were in use in most of 
om^ houses. The first was made of a large 
block of wood about three feet long, with an 
excavation burned in one end, w^de at the top 
and narrow at the bottom, so that the action of 
the pestle on the bottom threw the corn up to 
the sides toward the top of it, from whence it 
continually fell down into the center. 

" In consequence of this movement, the whole 



268 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

mass of the grain was pretty equally subjected 
to the strokes of the pestle. In the fall of the 
year while the Indian corn was soft, the block 
and pestle did very well for making meal for 
johnny-cake and mush ; but were rather slow 
when the corn became hard. 

" The sweep was sometimes used to lessen 
the toil of pounding grain into meal. This was 
a pole of some springy, elastic wood, thirty feet 
long or more ; the butt end was placed under the 
side of a house, or a large stump ; this pole was 
supported by two forks, placed about one-third 
of its length from the butt end, so as to elevate 
the small end about fifteen feet from the 
ground ; to this was attached, by a large mortise, 
a piece of sapling about ^ve or six inches in 
diameter and eight or ten feet long. The lower 
end of this was shaped so as to answer for a 
pestle. A pin of wood was put through it, at 
a proper height, so that two persons could work 
at the sweep at once. This simple machine very 
much lessened the labor and expedited the work. 

" I remember that when a boy I put up an 
excellent sweep at my father's. It was made 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. ^69 

of a sugar-tree sapling. It was kept going 
almost constantly from morning till night b}^ 
our neighbors and friends for several weeks. 

In the Greenbriar country, where were a num- 
ber of saltpeter caves, the first settlers made 
plenty of excellent gunpowder by the means 
of those sweeps and mortars. 

" A machine, still more simple than the 
mortar and pestle, was used for making meal 
while the corn was too soft to be beaten. It 
was called a grater. This was a half -circular 
piece of tin, perforated with a punch from the 
concave side, and nailed by its edges to a block 
of wood. The ears of com were rubbed on 
the rough edge of the holes, while the meal fell 
through them on the board or block, to which 
the grater was nailed, which, being in a slant- 
ing direction, dipcharged the meal into a cloth 
or bowl placed for its reception. This, to be 
sure, was a slow way of making meal; but 
necessity has no law. 

" The hand-mill was better than the mortar 
and grater. It was made of two circulai' stones, 
the lowest of which was called the bed-stone, 



270 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

the upper one the runner. These were placed 
in a hoop, with a spout for discharging the 
meal. A staff was let into a hole in the upper 
surface of the runner, near the outer edge and 
its upper end through a hole in a board fastened 
to a joist above, so that two persons could be 
employed in turning the mill at the same time. 
The grain was put into the opening in the 
runner by hand. The mills are still in use in 
Palestine, the ancient country of the Jews. To 
a mill of this sort our Saviour alluded when, 
with reference to the destruction of Jenisalem, 
he said : ^ Two women shall be grinding at a 
mill, the one shall be taken and the other left.' 

" This mill is much preferable to that used at 
present in upper Egypt for making the dhouiTa 
bread. It is a smooth stone, place on an in- 
clined plane, upon which the gi'ain is spread, 
which is made into meal by iTibbing another 
stone up and down upon it. 

" Our first water mills were of that description 
denominated tub-mills. It consists of a per- 
pendicular shaft, to the lower end of which an 
horizontal wheel of about four or ^ve feet in 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 271 

diameter is attached, the upper end passes 
through the bedstone and carries the runner 
after the manner of a trundlehead. These mills 
were built with very little expense, and many 
of them answered the purpose very well. 

"Instead of bolting cloths, sifters were in 
general use. These were made of deer skins 
in the state of parchment, stretched over a hoop 
and perforated with a hot wire. 

" Our clothing was all of domestic manufac- 
ture. We had no other resource for clothing, 
and this, indeed, was a poor one. The crops 
of flax often failed, and the sheep were de- 
stroyed by the wolves. Linsey, which is made 
of flax and wool, the former the chain and 
the latter the filling, was the waimest and the 
most substantial cloth we could make. Almost 
every house contained a loom, and almost every 
woman was a weaver. 

"Every family tanned their own leather. 
The tan vat was a large trough sunk to the 
upper edge in the ground. A quantity of bark 
was easily obtained every spring in clearing 
and fencing land. This, after drying, was 



272 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

brought in, and in wet days was shaved and 
pounded on a block of wood with an ax or 
mallet. Ashes were used in place of lime for 
taking off the hair. Bears' oil, hogs' lard, and 
tallow answered the place of fish oil. The 
leather, to be sure, was coarse ; but it was sub- 
stantially good. The operation of currying 
was performed by a drawing-knife with its edge 
turned, after the manner of a currying-knife. 
The blocking for the leather was made of soot 
and hog's lard. 

" Almost every family contained its own 
tailors and shoemakers. Those who could not 
make shoes could make shoepacks. These, like 
moccasins, were made of a single piece on the 
top of the foot. This was about two inches 
broad and circular at the lower end. To this 
the main piece of leather was sewed, with a 
gathering stitch. The seam behind was like 
that of a moccasin. To the shoepack a sole 
was sometimes added. The women did the 
tailor- work. They could all cut out, and make 
hunting shii'ts, leggins, and drawers. 

" The state of society which exists in every 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 273 

country at an early period of its settlements is 
well calculated to call into action every native 
mechanical genius. So it happened in this 
country. There was in almost every neighbor- 
hood some one whose natural ingenuity enabled 
him to do many things for himseK and his 
neighbors, far above what could have been rea- 
sonably expected. With the few tools which 
they brought with them into the country, they 
certainly performed wonders. Their plows, 
harrows with their wooden teeth, and sleds, 
were in many instances well made. Their 
cooper-ware, which comprehended everything 
for holding milk and water, was generally 
pretty well executed. The cedar- ware, by hav- 
ing alternately a white and red stave, was then 
thought beautiful ; many of their puncheon floors 
were very neat, their joints close, and the top 
even and smooth. Their looms, although heavy, 
did very well. These who could not exercise 
these mechanic arts were under the necessity of 
giving labor or barter to their neighbors, in ex^ 
change for the use of them, so far as their 

necessities required, 
i8 



274 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

" Sports. — One important pastime of our 
boys was that of imitating tlie noise of every 
bird and beast in tbe woods. This faculty was 
not merely a pastime, but a very necessary part 
of education, on account of its utility in certain 
circumstances. The imitations of the gobbling, 
and other sounds of wild turkeys, often brought 
those keen-eyed and ever- watchful tenants of 
the forests within the reach of their rifle. The 
bleating of the fawn brought its dam to her 
death in the same way. The hunter often col- 
lected a company of mopish owls to the trees 
about his camp, and amused himself with their 
hoarse screaaiing ; his howl would raise and ob- 
tain responses from a pack of wolves, so as to 
inform him of their neighborhood, as well as 
guard him against their depredations. 

" This imitative faculty was sometimes requi- 
site as a measm^e of precaution in war. The In- 
dians, when scattered about in a neighborhood, 
often collected together, by imitating turkeys by 
day and wolves or owls by night. In similar 
situations, our people did the same. I have 
often witnessed the consternation of a whole 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 275 

settlement, in consequence of a few screeches of 
owls. An early and correct use of this imitative 
faculty was considered as an indication that its 
possessor would become, in due time, a good 
hunter and valiant warrior. Throwing the 
tomahawk was another boyish sport, in which 
many acquired considerable skill. The toma- 
hawk, with its handle of a certain length, 
will make a given number of tui^ns in a given 
distance. Say in -^ve steps, it will strike with 
the edge, the handle downward ; at the distance 
of seven and a half, it will strike with the edge, 
the handle upward, and so on. A little experi- 
ence enabled the boy to measure the distance 
with his eye, when walking through the woods, 
and strike a tree with his tomahawk in any way 
he chose. 

*' The athletic sports of running, jumping, and 
wrestling were the pastimes of boys, in common 
with the men. 

" A well-grown boy, at the age of twelve or 
thirteen years, was furnished with a small rifle 
and shot-pouch. He then became a fort soldier, 
and had his porthole assigned him. Hunting 



276 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

squirrels, turkeys, and raccoons soon made him 
expert in the use of his gun. 

" Dancing was the principal amusement of 
our young people of both sexes. Their dances, 
to be sure, were of the simplest form. Three 
and four-handed reels and jigs. Country dances, 
cotillions, and minuets were unknown. I re- 
member to have seen, once or twice, a dance 
which was called " The Irish Trot," but I have 
long since forgotten its figure. 

" Shooting at marks was a common diversion 
among the men, when their stock of ammunition 
would allow it ; this, however, was far from be- 
ing always the case. The present mode of shoot- 
ing off-hand was not then in practise. This 
mode was not considered as any trial of the 
value of a gun, nor, indeed, as much of a test of 
the skill of a marksman. Their shooting was 
from a rest, and at as great a distance as the 
length and weight of the barrel of the gun would 
throw a ball on a horizontal level. Such was 
their regard to accuracy, in those sportive trials 
of their rifles, and of their own skill in the use of 
them, that they often put moss, or some other 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 277 

soft substance on the log or stump from wliicli 
they shot, for fear of having the bullet thrown 
from the mai-k by the spring of the barrel. 
When the rifle was held to the side of a tree for 
a rest, it was pressed against it as lightly as 
possible, for the same reason. 

" Rifles of fonner times were different from ' 
those of modern date ; few of them carried more 
than forty-five bullets to the pound. Bullets of 
a less size were not thought sufficiently heavy 
for hunting or war." 

Our readei-s will pardon the length of these 
extracts from Doddridge, as they convey accu- 
rate pictures of many scenes of Western life in 
the times of Daniel Boone. We add to them a 
single extract from " Ramsay's Annals of Ten- 
nessee." The early settlement of that State took 
place about the same time vrith that of Kentucky, 
and was made by emigrants from the same re- 
gion. The following remarks are therefore per- 
fectly applicable to the pioneers of Kentucky. 

" The settlement of Tennessee was unlike that 
of the present new country of the United States. 
Emigrants from the Atlantic cities, and from 



278 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

most points in the Western interior, now embark 
upon steamboats or other craft, and carrying with 
them all the conveniences and comforts of civ- 
ilized life— indeed, many of its luxuries — are, 
in a few days, without toil, danger, or exposure, 
transported to their new abodes, and in a few 
months are surrounded mth the appendages of 
home, of civilization, and the blessings of law 
and of society. The wilds of Minnesota and 
Nebraska by the agency of steam, or the stal- 
wart arms of Western boatmen, are at once trans- 
formed into the settlements of a commercial and 
civilized people. Independence and St. Paul, 
six months after they are laid off, have their stores 
and their workshops, their artisans, and their 
mechanics. The mantua-maker and the tailor 
arrive in the same boat with the carpenter and 
mason. The professional man and the printer 
quickly follow. In the succeeding year the 
piano, the drawing-room, the restaurant, the 
billiard table, the church bell, the village and 
the city in miniature, are all found, while the 
neighboring interior is yet a wilderness and a 
deserto The town and comfort, taste and urban- 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 279 

ity are fii'st ; the clearing, the farm-house, the 
wagon road and the improved country, second. 
It was far different on the frontier in Ten- 
nessee. At first a single Indian trail was the 
only entrance to the eastern border of it, and 
for many years admitted only of the hunter and 
the pack-horse. It was not till the year 1776 
that a wagon was seen in Tennessee. In con- 
sequence of the want of roads — as well as of 
the great distance from sources of supply — the 
first inhabitants were without tools, and, of 
course, without mechanics — much more, without 
the conveniences of living and the comforts of 
housekeeping. Luxuries were absolutely un- 
known. Salt was brought on pack-horses from 
Augusta and Richmond, and readily commanded 
ten dollars a bushel. The salt gourd, in every 
cabin, was considered as a treasure. The sugar- 
maple furnished the only article of luxury on 
the frontier ; coffee and tea being unknown, or 
beyond the reach of the settlers ; sugar was 
seldom made, and was only used for the sick, or 
in the preparation of a sweetened dram at a 
wedding, or the arrival of a newcomer. Th^ 



280 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

appendages of the kitdien, the cupboard, and the 
table were scanty and simple. 

" Iron was brought at great expense, from the 
forges east of the mountain, on pack horses, and 
was sold at an enormous price. Its use was, for 
this reason, confined to the construction and 
repair of plows and other farming utensils. 
Hinges, nails, and fastenings of that material 
were seldom seen. 

" The costume of the first settlers corresponded 
well with the style of their buildings and the 
quality of their furniture. The hunting-shirt of 
the militiaman and the hunter was in general 
use. The rest of their apparel was in keeping 
with it — plain, substantial, and well adapted for 
comfort, use, and economy. The apparel of the 
pioneer's family was all home-made, and in a 
whole neighborhood there would not be seen, 
at the first settlement of the country, a single 
article of dress of foreign growth or manufacture. 
Half the year, in many families, shoes were not 
worn. Boots, a fur hat, and a coat with buttons 
on each side attracted the gaze of the beholder 
and sometimes received censure and rebuke. A 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 281 

stranger from the old States chose to doff his 
ruffles, his broadcloth, and his queue, rather 
than endure the scoff and ridicule of the back- 
woodsmen. 

" The dwelling-house, on every frontier in 
Tennessee, was the log-cabin. A carpenter and 
a mason were not needed to build them — much 
less the painter, the glazier, or the upholsterer. 
Every settler had, besides his rifle, no other in- 
strument but an ax, a hatchet, and a butcher 
knife. A saw, an auger, a froe, and a broad- 
ax would supply a whole settlement, and were 
used as common property in the erection of the 
log-cabin. The floor of the cabin was some- 
times the earth. No saw-mill was yet erected ; 
and, if the means or leisure of the occupant 
authorized it, he split out puncheons for the floor 
and for the shutter of the entrance to his cabin. 
The door was hung with wooden hinges and 
fastened by a wooden latch. 

" Such was the habitation of the pioneer Ten- 
nessean. Scarcely can one of these structures, 
venerable for their years and the associations 
which cluster around them, be now seen in Ten- 



282 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

nessee. Time and improvement have displaced 
ttem. Here and there in the older counties, 
may yet be seen the old log-house, which sixty 
years ago sheltered the first emigrant, or gave, 
for the time, protection to a neighborhood as- 
sembled within its strong and bullet-proof walls. 
Such an one is the east end of Mr. Martin's 
house, at Campbell's Station, and the center part 
of the mansion of this writer, at Mecklenburg, 
once Gilliam's Station, changed somewhat, it is 
true, in some of its aspects, but preserving even 
yet, in the height of the story and in its old- 
fashioned and capacious fireplace, some of the 
features of primitive architecture on the frontier. 
Such, too, is the present dwelling-house of Mr. 
Tipton, on Ellejoy, in Blount County, and that 
of Mr. Glasgow Snoddy, in Sevier County. But 
these old buildings are becoming exceedingly 
rare, and soon not one of them will be seen. 
Their unsightly proportions and rude architec- 
ture will not much longer offend modern taste, 
nor provoke the idle and irreverent sneer of the 
fastidious and the fashionable. When the last 
one of these pioneer houses shall have fallen into 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 283 

decay and ruins, the memory of their first occu- 
pants will still be immortal and indestinictible. 

" The interior of the cabin was no less impre- , 
tending and simple. The whole furniture, of the 
one apartment — answering in these primitive 
times the purposes of the kitchen, the dining- 
room, the nursery and the dormitory — were a 
plain home-made bedstead or two, some split- 
bottomed chairs and stools ; a large puncheon, 
supported on four legs, used, as occasion required, 
for a bench or a table, a water shelf and a bucket ; 
a spinning-wheel, and sometimes a loom, finished 
the catalogue. The wardrobe of the family was 
equally plain and simple. The walls of the 
house were hung round with the dresses of the 
females, the hunting-shirts, clothes, and the arms 
and shot-pouches of the men. 

" The labor and employment of a pioneer 
family were distributed in accordance with sur- 
rounding circumstances. To the men was as- 
signed the duty of procuring subsistence and 
materials for clothing, erecting the cabin and the 
station, opening and cultivating the farm, hunt- 
ing the wild beasts, and repelling and pursuing 



284 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

the Indians. Tlie women spun tlie flax, the cotton 
and wool, wove the cloth, made them up, milked, 
churned, and prepared the food, and did their 
full share of the duties of housekeeping. An- 
other thus describes them : " There we behold 
woman in her true glory ; not a doll to carry 
silks and jewels, not a puppet to be dandled by 
fops, an idol of profane adoration, reverenced 
to-day, discarded to-morrow ; admired, but not 
respected ; desired, but not esteemed ; ruling by 
passion, not affection ; imparting her weak- 
ness, not her constancy, to the sex she should 
exalt ; the source and mirror of vanity. We see 
her as a wife, partaking of the cares, and guid- 
ing the labors of her husband, and by her 
domestic diligence spreading cheerfulness all 
around ; for his sake, sharing the decent refine- 
ments of the Avorld, without being fond of them ; 
placing all her joy, all her happiness in the mer- 
ited approbation of the man she loves. As a 
mother, we find her the affectionate, the ardent 
instructress of the children she has reared from 
infancy and trained them up to thought and 
virtue, to meditation and benevolence ; address- 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 285 

ing them as rational beings, and preparing them 
to become men and women in their turn. 

" ' Could there be happiness or comfort in 
such dwellings and such a state of society ? To 
those who are accustomed to modern refine- 
ments, the truth appears like fable. The early- 
occupants of log-cabins were among the most 
happy of mankind. Exercise and excitement 
gave them health ; they were practically equal ; 
common danger made them mutually depend- 
ent ; brilliant hopes of future wealth and dis- 
tinction led them on ; and as there was ample 
room for all, and as each newcomer increased 
individual and general security, there was little 
room for that envy, jealousy, and hatred which 
constitute a large portion of human misery in 
older societies. Never were the story, the joke, 
the song, and the laugh better enjoyed than 
upon the hewed blocks, or puncheon stools, 
around the roaring log fire of the early Western 
settler. The lyre of Apollo was not hailed 
with more delight in primitive Greece than the 
advent of the first fiddler among the dwellers 
of the wilderness ; and the polished daughters 



286 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

of the East never enjoyed themselves half so 
well, moving to the music of a full band, upon 
the elastic floor of their ornamented ball- 
room, as did the daughters of the emigrants, 
keeping time to a self-taught fiddler, on the 
bare earth or puncheon floor of the primitive 
log cabin. The smile of the polished beauty is 
the wave of the lake, where the breeze plays 
gently over it, and her movement is the gentle 
stream which drains it ; but the laugh of the 
log-cabin is the gush of nature's fountain, and 
its movement, its leaping water.' * 

"On the frontier the diet was necessarily 
plain and homely, but exceedingly abundant 
and nutritive. The Goshen of America f fur- 
nished the richest milk, the finest butter, and the 
most savory and delicious meats. In their rude 
cabins, with tlieir scanty and inartificial furni- 
tiu-e, no people ever enjoyed in wholesome food 
a greater vaiiety, or a superior quality of the 
necessaries of life. For bread, the Indian com 
was exclusively used. It was not till 1790 that 
the settlers on the rich bottoms of Cumberland 
* Kendall. t Butler, 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 287 

and Nollichucky discovered the remarkable ad- 
aptation of the soil and climate of Tennessee to 
the production of this grain. Emigrants from 
James River, the Catawba, and the Santee were 
surprised at the amount and quality of the corn 
crops, surpassing greatly the best results of agri- 
cultural labor and care in the Atlantic States. 
This superiority still exists, and Tennessee, by the 
census of 1850, was the corn State. Of all the 
f arinacea, corn is best adapted to the condition 
of a pioneer people ; and if idolatry is at all 
justifiable, Ceres, or certainly the Goddess of 
Indian corn, should have had a temple and 
worshipers among the pioneers of Tennessee. 
Without that grain, the frontier settlements 
could not have been formed and maintained. 
It is the most certain crop — requires the least 
preparation of the ground — is most congenial to 
a virgin soil — needs not only the least amount 
of labor in its culture, but comes to maturity in 
the shortest time. The pith of the matured 
stalk of the corn is esculent and nutritious ; and 
the stalk itself, compressed between rollers, 
furnishes what is known as corn-stalk molasses. 



288 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

" This grain requires, also, tlie least care and 
trouble in preserving it. It may safely stand 
all winter upon the stalk without injury from 
the weather or apprehension of damage by dis- 
ease, or the accidents to which other grains are 
subject. Neither smut nor rust, nor weavil nor 
snow-storm, will hurt it. After its maturity, it 
is also prepared for use or the granary with little 
labor. The husking is a short process, and is 
even advantageously delayed till the moment 
arrives for using the corn. The machinery for 
converting it into food is also exceedingly sim- 
ple and cheap. As soon as the ear is fully 
formed, it may be roasted or boiled, and forms 
thus an excellent and nourishing diet. At a 
later period it may be grated, and furnishes, in 
this form, the sweetest bread. The grains boiled 
in a variety of modes, either whole or broken 
in a mortar, or roasted in the ashes, or popped 
in an oven, are well relished. If the grain is to 
be converted into meal, a simple tub-mill an- 
swers the purpose best, as the meal least perfectly 
ground is always preferred. A bolting-cloth is 
not needed, as it diminishes the sweetness and 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 289 

value of the flour. The catalogue of the advan- 
tages of this meal might be extended further. 
Boiled in water, it forms the frontier dish called 
mush^ which was eaten with milk, with honey, 
molasses, butter or gravy. Mixed with cold 
water, it is at once ready for the cook ; covered 
with hot ashes, the preparation is called the ash 
cake ; placed upon a piece of clapboard, and set 
near the coals, it forms the journey-cake ; or 
managed in the same way, upon a helveless hoe, 
it forms the hoe-cake ; put in an oven, and 
covered over with a heated lid, it is called, if in 
a large mass, a pone or loaf ; if in smaller quan- 
tities, dodgers. It has the further advantage, 
over all other flour, that it requires in its prep- 
aration few culinary utensils, and neither sugar, 
yeast, eggs, spices, soda, potash, or other et cet- 
eras^ to qualify or perfect the bread. To all 
this it may be added, that it is not only cheap 
and well tasted, but it is unquestionably the most 
wholesome and nutritive food. The largest 
and healthiest people in the world have lived 
upon it exclusively. It formed the principal 

bread of that robust race of men — giants in 
19 



290 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

miniature — which, half a century since, was 
seen on the frontier. 

" The dignity of history is not lowered by 
this enumeration of the pre-eminent qualities of 
Indian corn. The rifle and the ax have had 
their influence in subduing the wilderness to the 
purposes of civilization, and they deserve their ^ 
eulogists and trumpeters. Let paeans be sung 
all over the mighty West to Indian corn — ^with- 
out it, the West would have still been a wilder- 
ness. Was the frontier suddenly invaded ? 
AVithout commissary or quartermaster, or other 
sources of supply, each soldier parched a peck 
of com ; a portion of it was put into his pockets, 
the remainder in his wallet, and, throwing it 
upon his saddle, with his rifle on his shoulder, 
he was ready, in half an hour, for the campaign. 
Did a flood of emigration inundate the frontier 
with an amount of consumers disproportioned 
to the supply of grain ? The facility of raising 
the Indian com, and its early maturity, gave 
promise and guaranty that the scarcity would 
be temporary and tolerable. Did the safety of 
the frontier demand the services of every adult 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 291 

militiaman ? The boys and women could, them- 
selves, raise corn and fumisli ample supplies 
of bread. The crop could be gathered next 
year. Did an autumnal intermittent confine 
the whole family or the entire population to 
the sick-bed ? This certain concomitant of the 
clearing, and cultivating the new soil, mercifully 
Avithholds its paroxysms till the crop of corn is 
made. It requires no further labor or care 
afterward. Paeans, say we, and a temple and 
worshipers, to the Creator of Indian corn ! The 
frontier man could gratefully say : ' He maketh 
me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth 
me beside the still waters. Thou preparest a 
table before 'me in presence of mine enemies? 

" The sports of the frontier men were mainly 
athletic, or warlike — ^the chase, the bear hunt, 
the deer drive, shooting at the target, throwing 
the tomahawk, jumping, boxing and wrestling, 
foot and horse-racing. Playing marbles and 
pitching dollars, cards and backgammon were 
little known, and were considered base or effem- 
inate. The bugle, the violin, the fife and drum, 
furnished all the musical entertainments. These 



292 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

were much used and passionately admired 
Weddings, military trainings, house-raisings, 
chopping frolics, were often followed with the 
fiddle, and dancing, and rural sports." 



CHAPTEE XX. 

Indian hostilities resumed — Expedition of Davis, Caffree and 
McClure — Murder of Elliot — Marshall's river adventure — 
Attack on Captain Ward's boat — Affair near Scaggs' Creek — 
Growth of Kentucky — Population — Trade — General Logan 
calls a meeting at Danville — Danger of the country from 
Indian hostilities, and necessity of defense considered — 
Convention called — Separation from Virginia proposed — 
Other conventions — Virginia consents — Kentucky admitted 
as an independent State of the Union — Indian hostilities — 
Expedition and death of Colonel Christian — Attack on Hig- 
gins' Fort — Expedition of General Clark — Its utter failure 
Expedition of General Logan — Surprises and destroys a 
Shawanese town — Success of Captain Hardin — Defeat of 
Hargrove — Affairs in Bourbon County — Exploits of Siinon 
Kenton — Affairs at the Elkhom settlements — Treaty — 
Harman's expedition — Final pacification of the Indians 
after Wayne's victory. 

Kentucky was not yet entirely freed from 
Indian hostilities. There was no formidable in- 
vasion, such as to call for the exertions of Boone, 
Kenton and the other warriors of the border, 
but there were several occurrences which occa- 
sioned considerable alarm. 
293 



294 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

In the spring of 1784 a number of families 
started down tlie Ohio from Louisville in two 
flat boats. They were pursued by Indians in 
canoes, but awed by the determined aspect of 
the whites they drew off, without so much as 
a gun being fired on either side. 

This same spring a party of southern Indians 
stole some horses from Lincoln County. Three 
young men, Davis, Caffree and McClure, pur- 
sued them, but failing to overtake them, con- 
cluded to make reprisals on the nearest Indian 
settlement. Not far from the Tennessee River, 
they fell in with an equal number of Indians. 
The two parties saluted each other in a veiy 
friendly manner, and agreed to journey in com- 
pany. The whites, however, were by no means 
convinced of the sincerity of their companions, 
and, seeing them talking together very earnestly, 
became assured of their hostile intentions. It 
being determined to anticipate the Indians' 
attack, Caffree undertook to capture one of 
them, while his companions shot the other two. 
According he sprung upon the nearest Indian, and 
bore him to the ground ; Davis' gun missed fire 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 295 

but McClure sliot liis man dead. The remain- 
ing Indian sprung to a tree from which shelter 
he shot Cali'ree, who was still struggling with 
the Indian he had grappled. He, in his turn 
was immediately shot by McClure. The Indian 
whom Caffree had attacked, extricated himself 
from the grasp of his dying antagonist, and 
seizing his lifle presented it at Davis, who was 
coming to the assistance of his friend. Davis 
took to flight, his rifle not being in good order, 
and was pursued by the Indian into the wood. 
McClure, loading his gun, followed them, but 
lost sight of both. Davis was never heard of 
afterward. 

McClure now concluded to retreat, but he had 
not proceeded far, before he met an Indian on 
horseback attended by a boy on foot. The 
warrior dismounted, and seating himseK on a log, 
offered his pipe to McClure. Soon other Indians 
were seen advancing in the distance, when Mc- 
Clure's sociable friend informed him that when 
his companions came up they would take him 
(McClure) and put him on a horse, tying his 
feet under its belly. In order to convey to his 



296 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

white brotlier an adequate idea of the honor in- 
tended him, the Indian got astride the log and 
locked his feet together. McClure took this 
opportunity of shooting his amiable but rather 
eccentric companion, and then ran off into the 
woods and escaped. 

This affair, the reader will bear in mind, was 
with southern Indians, not with those of the 
northwestern tribes, from whom the Kentuck- 
ians had suffered most. The only demonstra- 
tion of hostility made by these, this year, appears 
to have been the pursuit of the boats mentioned 
before. In March, 1785, a man of the name of 
Elliot, who had emigrated to the country near 
the mouth of the Kentucky River, was killed 
by Indians and his house destroyed and family 
dispersed. 

As Colonel Thomas Marshall from Virginia 
was descending the Ohio, in a flat boat, he was 
hailed from the northern shore by a man, who 
announced himself as James Grirty, and said that 
he had been placed by his brother Simon, to 
warn all boats of the danger of being attacked 
by the Indians. He told them that efforts 



LIFE OP DANIEL BOONE. 29Y 

would be made to decoy them ashore by means 
of renegade white men, who would represent 
themselves as in great distress. He exhorted 
them to steel their hearts against all such appeals, 
and to keep the middle of the river. He said 
that his brother regretted the injuries he had 
inflicted upon the whites, and would gladly re- 
pair them as much as possible, to be re-admitted 
to their society, having lost all his influence 
among the Indians. This repentance on the 
part of Girty seems to have been of short dura- 
tion, as he remained among the Indians till his 
death, which according to some took place at 
the battle of the Thames, though others deny it. 

However sincere or lasting Girty's repentance 
had been, he could never have lived in safety 
among the whites ; he had been too active, and 
if common accounts are to be credited, too sav- 
age in his hostility to them, to admit of forgive- 
ness ; and it is probable that a knowledge of 
this prevented him from abandoning the In- 
dians. 

" About the same time," says McClung, " Cap 
tain James Ward, at present a highly-respect- 



^98 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

able citizen of Mason County, Kentucky, was 
descending tlie Ohio, under circumstances whicli 
rendered a rencontre with the Indians peculiarly 
to be dreaded. He, together with half a dozen 
others, one of them his nephew, embarked in 
a crazy boat, about forty -five feet long and eight 
feet wide, with no other bulwark than a single 
pine plank above each gunnel. The boat was 
much encumbered with baggage, and seven 
horses were on board. Having seen no enemy 
for several days, they had become secure and 
careless, and permitted the boat to drift within 
fifty yards of the Ohio shore. Suddenly, several 
hundred Indians showed themselves on the bank, 
and running down boldly to the water's edge, 
opened a heavy fire upon the boat. The aston- 
ishment of the crew may be conceived. 

Captain Ward and his nephew were at the 
oars when the enemy appeared, and the captain 
knowing that their safety depended upon their 
agility to regain the middle of the river, kept 
his seat firmly, and exerted his utmost powers 
at the oar, but his nephew started up at sight 
of the enemy, seized his rifle, and was in the 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

act of leveling it, when he received a ball in 
the breast, and fell dead in the bottom of 
the boat. Unfortunately, his oar fell into the 
river, and the Captain, having no one to pull 
against him, rather urged the boat nearer to the 
hostile shore than otherwise. He quickly seized 
a plank, however, and giving his oar to another 
of the crew, he took the station which his 
nephew had held, and unhurt by the shower 
of bullets which flew around him, continued to 
exert himself until the boat had reached a more 
respectable distance. He then, for the fii'st 
time, looked around him in order to observe 
the condition of the crew. 

His nephew lay in his blood, perfectly life- 
less ; the horses had been all killed or mortally 
wounded. Some had fallen overboard ; others 
were struggling violently and causing their 
frail bark to dip water so abundantly as to 
excite the most serious apprehensions. But 
the crew presented the most singular spectacle. 
A captain, who had served with reputation in 
the continental amiy, seemed now totally bereft 
of his faculties. He lay upon his back in the 



300 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

bottom of the boat, with hands uplifted, and a 
countenance in which terror was personified, 
exclaiming in a tone of despair, ^' Oh Lord ! 
Oh Lord ! " A Dutchman, whose weight might 
amount to about three hundred pounds, was 
anxiously engaged in endeavoring to iBnd shelter 
for his bulky person, which, from the lo^vness 
of the gunnels, was a very difficult undertaking. 
In spite of his utmost eiforts, a portion of his 
posterior luxuriance appeared above the gunnel, 
and afforded a mark to the enemy, which 
brought a constant shower of balls around it. 

" In vain he shifted his position. The hump 
still appeared, and the balls still flew around it, 
until the Dutchman, losing all patience, raised 
his head above the gunnel, and in a tone of 
querulous remonstrance, called out, " Oh now ! 
quit tat tamned nonsense, tere, will you ! " Not 
a shot was fired from the boat. At one time, 
after they had pai'tly regained the current, 
Captain Ward attempted to bring his rifle to 
bear upon them, but so violent was the agitation 
of the boat, from the furious struggles of the 
horses, that he could not steady his piece within 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 301 

twenty yards of the enemy, and quickly laying 
it aside, retui^ned to the oar. The Indians 
followed them down the river for more than an 
hour, but having no canoes they did not attempt 
to board ; and as the boat was at length trans- 
ferred to the opposite side of the river, they at 
length abandoned the pursuit and disappeared. 
None of the crew, save the young man already 
mentioned, were hurt, although the Dutchman's 
seat of honor served as a target for the space 
of an hour; and the continental captain was 
deeply mortified at the sudden and, as he said, 
' unaccountable ' panic which had seized him. 
Captain Ward himself was protected by a post, 
which had been fastened to the gunnel, and 
behind which he sat while rowing." * 

"In October, a party of emigrants were at- 
tacked near Scaggs' Creek, and six killed. 
Mrs. McClure, with four children, ran into the 
woods, where she might have remained con- 
cealed, if it had not been for the cries of her 
infant, whom she could not make up her mind 
to abandon. The Indians, guided to her hiding- 

* McClung, 



302 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONK 

place by these cries, cruelly tomahawked the 
three oldest children, but made her prisoner 
with her remaining child. Captain Whitley, 
with twenty-one men, intercepted the party on 
its return, and dispersed them, killing two and 
wounding the same number. The prisoners 
were rescued. A few days after, another party 
of emigrants were attacked, and nine of them 
killed. Captain Whitley again pursued the 
Indians. On coming up with them, they took 
to flight. Three were killed in the course of 
the pursuit ; two by the gallant Captain himself. 
Some other depredations were committed this 
year, but none of as much importance as those 
we have mentioned." 

These acts of hostility on the part of the In- 
dians led to the adoption of measures for the 
defense of the Colony, to which w^e shall pres- 
ently call the reader's attention. 

" Although," says Perkins,* " Kentucky grew 
rapidly during the year 1784, the emigrants 
numbering twelve, and the whole population 
thirty thousand; although a friendly meeting 

* "Western Annals." 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 303 

was held by Thomas J. Dalton, with the Pian- 
keshaws, at Vincennes, in April ; and though 
trade was extending itself into the clearings and 
among the canebrakes — Daniel Brodhead hav- 
ing opened his store at Louisville the pre\aous 
year and James Wilkinson having come to Lex- 
ington in February, as the leader of a large 
commercial company, formed in Philadelphia, 
still the cool and sagacious mind of Logan led 
him to prepare his fellow-citizens for trial and 
hardships. He called in the autumn of 1784 a 
meeting of the people at Danville, to take meas- 
ures for defending the country, and at this meet- 
ing the whole subject of the position and dan- 
ger of Kentucky was examined and discussed, 
and it was agreed that a convention should 
meet in December to adopt some measures for 
the security of the settlements in the wilderness. 
Upon the 27th of that month it met, nor was it 
long before the idea became prominent that Ken- 
tucky must ask to be severed from Virginia, and 
left to her own guidance and control. But as 
no such conception was general, when the dele- 
gates to this first convention were chosen, they 



304 l^IFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

deemed it best to appoint a second, to meet 
during tlie next May, at which was specially to 
be considered the topic most interesting to those 
who were called on to think and vote — a com- 
plete separation from the parent State — ^politi- 
cal independence. 

Several other conventions took place, in which 
the subject of a separation fi'om Virginia was 
considered. In 1786 the Legislature of Virginia 
enacted the necessary preliminary provisions for 
the separation and erection of Kentucky into 
an independent State, with the condition that 
Congress should receive it into the Union, which 
was finally effected in the year 1792. 

Previously to this event, Indian hostilities 
were again renewed. 

"A number of Indians in April, 1786, stole 
some horses from the Bear Grass settlement, 
with which they crossed the Ohio. Colonel 
Christian pursued them into the Indian country, 
and, coming up with them, destroyed the whole 
party. How many there were is not stated. 
The whites lost two men, one of whom was the 
Colonel himself, whose death was a severe los^ 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 305 

to Kentucky. Tlie following affair, wMcli took 
place the same year, is given in the language of 
one who participated in it : 

" ' After the battle of the Blue Licks, and in 
1786, our family removed to Higgins' block- 
house on Licking Eiver, one and a half miles 
above Cynthiana. Between those periods my 
father had been shot by the Indians, and my 
mother mamed Samuel Van Hook, who had 
been one of the party engaged in the defense at 
RuddelFs Station in 1780, and on its surrender 
was carried with the rest of the prisoners to 
Detroit. 

" ' Higgins' Fort, or block-house, had been 

built at the bank of the Licking, on precipitous 

rocks, at least thirty feet high, which served 

to protect us on every side but one. On the 

morning of the 12-th of June, at daylight, the 

fort, which consisted of six or seven houses, was 

attacked by a party of Indians, fifteen or twenty 

in number. There was a cabin outside, below 

the fort, where William McCombs resided, 

although absent at that time. His son Andrew, 

and a man hired in the family, named Joseph 
20 



306 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

McFall, on making their appearance at the door 
to wash themselves, were both shot down — Mc- 
Combs through the knee, and McFall in the pit 
of the stomach. McFall ran to the block-house, 
and McCombs fell, unable to support himself 
longer, just after opening the door of his cabin, 
and was dragged in by his sisters, who barri- 
caded the door instantly. On the level and 
only accessible side there was a corn-field, and 
the season being favorable, and the soil rich as 
well as new, the corn was more than breast 
high. Here the main body of the Indians lay 
concealed, while three or four who made the 
attack attempted thereby to decoy the whites 
outside of the defenses. Failing in this, they 
set iire to an old fence and corn-crib, and two 
stables, both long enough built to be thoroughly 
combustible. These had previously protected 
their approach in that direction. Captain Asa 
Reese was in command of our little fort. 
" Boys," said he, " some of you must run over to 
Hinkston's or Harrison's." These were one and 
a half and two miles off, but in different di- 
rections. Every man declined. I objected, al- 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 307 

leging as my reason tliat lie would give up the 
fort before I could bring relief ; but on his as- 
surance that he would hold out, I agreed to go. 
I jumped off the bank through the thicket of 
trees, which broke my fall, while they scratched 
my face and limbs. I got to the gi'ound with a 
limb clenched in my hands, which I had grasped 
unawares in getting through. I recovered from 
the jar in less than a minute, crossed the Lick- 
ing, and ran up a cow-path on the opposite side, 
which the cows from one of those forts had beat 
down in their visits for water. As soon as I 
had gained the bank I shouted to assure my 
friends of my safety, and to discourage the 
enemy. In less than an hour I was back, with 
a relief of ten horsemen, well armed, and driv- 
ing in full chase after the Indians. But they 
had decamped immediately upon hearing my 
signal, well knowing what it meant, and it was 
deemed imprudent to pursue them with so weak 
a party — the whole force in Higgins' block-house 
hardly sufficing to guard the women and chil- 
dren there. McFall, from whom the bullet could 
not be extracted, lingered two days and nights 



308 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

in great pain, wlien lie died as, did McCombs, on 
tlie nintli day, mortification then taking place.' 

"While these depredations were going on, 
most of the Northwestern tribes were ostensibly 
at peace with the country, treaties having re- 
cently been made. But the Kentuckians, exas- 
perated by the repeated outrages, determined 
to have resort to their favorite expedient of 
invading the Indian country. How far they 
were justified in holding the tribes responsible 
for the actions of these roving plunderers, the 
reader must judge for himself. We may re- 
mark, however, that it does not seem distinctly 
proved that the Indians engaged in these attacks 
belonged to any of the tiibes against whom the 
attack was to be made. But the backwoodsmen 
were never very scrupulous in such matters. 
They generally regarded the Indian race as a 
unit: an offense committed by one warrior 
might be lawfully punished on another. We 
often, in reading the history of the West, read 
of persons who having lost relations by Indians 
of one tribe, made a practise of killing all whom 
they met, whether in peace or war. It is evi- 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 309 

dent, as Marshall says, that no authority but 
that of Congi'ess could render an expedition of 
this kind lawful. The Governor of Virginia 
had given instructions to the commanders of the 
countries to take the necessary means for de- 
fense ; and the Kentuckians, giving a free inter- 
pretation to these instructions, decided that the 
expedition was necessary and resolved to under- 
take it. 

" General Clark was selected to command it, 
and to the standard of this favorite officer volun- 
teers eagerly thronged. A thousand men were 
collected at the Falls of the Ohio, from whence 
the troops marched by land to St. Vincennes, 
while the provisions and other supplies were 
conveyed by water. The troops soon became 
discouraged. When the provisions reached Vin- 
cennes, after a delay of several days on account 
of the low water, it was found that a large pro- 
portion of them were spoiled. In consequence 
of this, the men were placed upon short allow- 
ance, with which, of course, they were not well 
pleased. In the delay in waiting for the boats, 
much of the enthusiasm of the men had evapo- 



310 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

rated ; and it is said by some tliat General Clark 
despatched a messenger to the towns, in advance 
of the troops, to offer them the choice of peace or 
war, which greatly lessened the chances of the 
success of the expedition. Though this measure 
would be only complying with the requirements 
of good faith, it is very doubtful if it was adopted, 
so utterly at variance would it be with the 
usual manner of conducting these expeditions. 

" At any rate, when the army arrived within 
two days' march of the Indian towns, no less 
than three hundred of the men refused to 
proceed, nor could all the appeals of Clark 
induce them to alter their determination. They 
marched oif in a body; and so discouraged 
were the others by this desertion, and the im- 
favorable circumstances in which they were 
placed, that a council held the evening after 
their departure concluded to relinquish the 
undertaking." 

The whole of the troops returned to Ken- 
tucky in a very disorderly manner. Thus did 
this expedition, begun under the most favorable 
auspices — ^for the commander's reputation was 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 311 

greater than any other in the West, and the 
men were the elite of Kentucky — altogether 
fail of its object, the men not having even seen 
the enemy. Marshall, in accounting for this 
unexpected termination, says that Clark was no 
longer the man he had been ; that he had in- 
jured his intellect by the use of spirituous 
liquors. Colonel Logan had at first accompa- 
nied Clark, but he soon returned to Kentucky 
to organize another expedition ; that might, 
while the attention of the Indians was alto- 
gether engrossed by the advance of Clark, fall 
upon some unguarded point. He raised the 
requisite number of troops without difficulty, 
and by a rapid march completely surprised one 
of the Shawanee towns, which he destroyed, 
killing several of the warriors, and bringing 
away a number of prisoners. In regard to the 
results of the measures adopted by the Ken- 
tuckians, we quote from Marshall : 

" In October of this year, a large number of 
families traveling by land to Kentucky, known 
by the name of McNitt's company were sur- 
prised in camp, at night, by a party of Indiana 



312 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

between Big and Little Laurel Eiver, and totally 
defeated, with the loss of twenty-one persons 
killed ; tlie rest dispersed, or taken prisoners. 

" About the same time, Captain Hardin, from 
the south-western part of the district, with a 
party of men, made an excursion into the Indian 
country, surrounding the Saline ; he fell in 
with a camp of Indians whom he attacked and 
defeated, killing four of them, without loss on 
his pai*t. 

"Some time in December, Hargrove and 
others were defeated at the mouth of Buck 
Creek, on the Cumberland River. The Indians 
attacked in the night, killed one man, and 
wounded Hargrove ; who directly became en- 
gaged in a rencontre with an Indian, armed with 
his tomahawk ; of this he was disarmed, but 
escaped, leaving the weapon with Hargrove, 
who bore it off, glad to extricate himself. In 
this year also, Benjamin Price was killed near 
the three forks of Kentucky. 

" Thus ended, in a full renewal of the war, 
the year whose beginning had happily mtnessed 
the completion of the treaties of peace. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 313 

" By this time, one thing must have beer 
obvious to those who had attended to the 
course of events — and that was, that if the 
Indians came into the country, whether for 
peace or war, hostilities were inevitable. 

" If the white people went into their country, 
the same consequences followed. The parties 
were yet highly exasperated against each other ; 
they had not cooled since the peace, if peace it 
could be called ; and meet where they would, 
bloodshed was the result. 

" Whether the Indians to the north and 
west had ascertained, or not, that the two ex- 
peditions of this year were with or without the 
consent of Congress, they could but think the 
treaties vain things ; and either made by those 
who had no right to make them, or no power 
to enforce them. With Kentuckians, it was 
known that the latter was the fact. To the 
Indians, the consequence was the same. They 
knew to a certainty, that the British had not 
surrendered the posts on the lakes — that it was 
from them they received their supplies ; that 
they had been deceived, as to the United States 



314 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

getting the posts, and they were easily per- 
suaded to believe, that these posts would not 
be transferred ; and that in tnith, the British, 
not the United States, had been the conquerors 
in the late war. 

" Such were the reflections which the state 
of facts would have justified, and at the same 
time have disposed them for war. The inva- 
sion of their country by two powerful armies 
from Kentucky, could leave no doubt of a dis- 
position equall}'- hostile on her j)art. Congress, 
utterly destitute of the means for enforcing the 
treaties, either on the one side or the other, 
stood aloof, ruminating on the inexhaustible 
abundance of her own want of resources — and 
the abuse of herself for not possessing them. 

After this year, we hear of but few independ- 
ent expeditions from Kentucky. Their militia 
were often called out to operate with the United 
States troops, and in Wayne's campaign were of 
much service ; but this belongs to the general 
history of the United States. All that we have 
to relate of Kentucky now is a series of preda- 
tory attacks by the Indians, varied occasionally 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 315 

by a spirited reprisal by a small party of whites. 
It is estimated that fifteen hundred persons were 
either killed or made prisoners in Kentucky 
after the year 1783. 

"On the night of the 11th of April, 1787," 
says McClung, " the house of a widow, in Bour- 
bon County, became the scene of an adventure 
which we think deserves to be related. She 
occupied what is generally called a double cabin, 
in a lonely part of the country, one room of 
which was tenanted by the old lady herself, to- 
gether ^vith two grown sons and a widowed 
daughter, at that time suckling an infant, while 
the other was occupied by two unmarried 
daughters, from sixteen to twenty years of age, 
together with a little girl not more than half 
grown. The hour was eleven o'clock at night. 
One of the unmarried daughters was still busily 
engaged at the loom, but the other members of 
the family, with the exception of one of the 
sons, had retii'ed to rest. Some symptoms of an 
alarming nature had engaged the attention of 
the young man for an hour before anything of 
a decided character took place. 



816 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

" The cry of owls was heard in the adjoining 
wood, answ^ering each other in rather an un- 
usual manner. The horses, which were enclosed 
' as usual in a pound near the house, were more 
' than commonly excited, and by repeated snort- 
ing and galloping announced the presence of 
some object of terror. The young man was often 
upon the point of awakening his brother, but 
was as often restrained by the fear of incurring 
ridicule and the reproach of timidity, at that 
time an unpardonable blemish in the character 
of a Kentuckian. At length hasty steps were 
heard in the yard, and quickly afterward sev- 
eral loud knocks at the door, accompanied by 
the usual exclamation, ' Who keeps house ? ' in 
very good English. The young man, suppos- 
ing from the language that some benighted 
settlers were at the door, hastily arose, and was 
advancing to withdraw the bar which secm'ed it, 
when his mother, who had long lived upon the 
frontiers, and had probably detected the Indian 
tone in the demand for admission, instantly 
sprung out of bed, and ordered her son not to 
admit them, declaring that they were Indians. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 317 

" She instantly awakened her other son, and 
the two young men seized their guns, which 
were always charged, prepared to repel the 
enemy. The Indians, finding it impossible to 
enter under their assumed characters, began to 
thunder at the door with great violence, but 
a single shot from a loop-hole compelled them 
to shift the attack to some less exposed point, 
and, unfortunately, they discovered the door 
of the other cabin, containing the three daugh- 
ters. The rifles of the brothers could not be 
brought to bear upon this point, and by means 
of several rails taken from the yard fence, the 
door w^as forced from its hinges, and the three 
girls were at the mercy of the savages. One 
was instantly secured, but the eldest defended 
herself desperately with a knife which she had 
been using at the loom, and stabbed one of the 
Indians to the heart before she was tomahawked. 

" In the meantime the little girl, who had 
been overlooked by the enemy in their eager- 
ness to secure the others, ran out into the yard, 
and might have effected her escape, had she 
taken advantage of the darkness and fled ; but 



318 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE, 

instead of that, the terrified little creature ran 
around the house wringing her hands, and cry- 
ing out that her sisters were killed. The 
brothers, unable to hear her cries without risk- 
ing everything for her rescue, rushed to the 
door and were preparing to sally out to her as- 
sistance, when their mother threw herself before 
them and calmly declared that the child must 
be abandoned to its fate ; that the sally would 
sacrifice the lives of all the rest, without the 
slightest benefit to the little girl. Just then 
the child uttered a loud scream, followed by 
a few faint moans, and all was again silent. 
Presently the crackling of flames was heard, ac- 
companied by a triumphant yell from the 
Indians, announcing that they had set fire to 
that division of the house which had been 
occupied by the daughters, and of which they 
held undisputed possession. 

" The fire was quickly communicated to the 
rest of the building, and it became necessaiy to 
abandon it or perish in the flames. In the one 
case there was a possibility that some might 
escape ; in the other, their fate would be equally 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 319 

certain and terrible. The rapid approach of 
the flames cut short their momentary suspense. 
The door was thrown open, and the old lady, 
supported by her eldest son, attempted to cross 
the fence at one point, while her daughter, car- 
rying her child in her arms, and attended by 
the younger of the brothers, ran in a different 
direction. The blazing roof shed a light over 
the yard but little inferior to that of da}', and 
the savages were distinctly seen awaiting the 
approach of their victims. The old lady was 
jpermitted to reach the stile unmolested, but in 
the act of crossing received several balls in her 
breast and fell dead. Her son, providentially, 
remained unhurt, and by extraordinary agility 
effected his escape. 

" The other party succeeded also in reaching 
the fence unhurt, but in the act of crossing were 
vigorously assailed by several Indians, who, 
throwing down their guns, rushed upon them 
"\Adth their tomahawks. The young man de- 
fended his sister gallantly, firing upon the enemy 
as they approached, and then wielding the butt 
of his rifle mth a fury that drew their whole 



320 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

attention upon himself, lie gave his sister an 
opportunity of effecting lier escape. He quickly 
fell, however, under the tomahawks of his 
enemies, and was found at daylight, scalped and 
mangled in a shocking manner. Of the whole 
family consisting of eight persons, when the 
attack commenced, only thi'ee escaped. Four 
were killed upon the spot, and one (the second 
daughter) carried off as a prisoner. 

" The neighborhood was quickly alarmed, and 
by daylight about thirty men were assembled 
under the command of Colonel Edwards. A 
light snow had fallen during the latter part of 
the night, and the Indian trail could be pursued 
at a gallop. It led directly into the moun- 
tainous country bordering upon Licking, and af- 
forded evidences of great hurry and precipita- 
tion on the part of the fugitives. Unfortunately 
a hound had been permitted to accompany the 
whites, and as the trail became fresh and the 
scent Avarm, she followed it mth eagerness, bay- 
ing loudly and giving the alarm to the Indians. 
The consequences of this imprudence were soon 
displayed. The enemy finding the pursuit keen, 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 321 

and perceiving that the strength of the prisoner 
began to fail, instantly sunk their tomahawks 
in her head and left her, still warm and bleed- 
ing, upon the snow. 

As the whites came up, she retained strength 
enough to wave her hand in token of recogni- 
tion, and appeared desirous of giving them some 
information with regard to the enemy, but her 
strength was too far gone. Her brother sprung 
from his horse and knelt by her side, endeavor- 
ing to stop the effusion of blood, but in vain. 
She gave him her hand, muttered some inartic- 
ulate words, and expired within two minutes 
after the arrival of the party. The pursuit was 
renewed with additional ardor, and in twenty 
minutes the enemy was within view. They had 
taken possession of a steep narrow ridge, and 
seemed desirous of magnifying their numbers 
in the eyes of the whites, as they ran rapidly 
from tree to tree, and maintained a steady yell in 
their most appalling tones. The pursuers, how- 
ever, were too experienced to be deceived by so 
common an artifice, and being satisfied that the 
number of the enemy must be inferior to their 

21 



322 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

own, they dismounted, tied tlieir liorses, and 
flanking out in such a manner as to enclose the 
enemy, ascended the ridge as rapidly as was 
consistent with a due regard to the shelter of 
their persons. 

The firing quickly commenced, and now for 
the first time they discovered that only two 
Indians were opposed to them. They had vol- 
untarily sacrificed themselves for the safety of 
the main body, and succeeded in delaying pur- 
suit until their friends could reach the moun- 
tains. One of them was instantly shot dead, 
and the other was badly wounded, as was evi- 
dent from the blood upon his blanket, as well as 
that which filled his tracks in the snow for a 
considerable distance. The pursuit was recom- 
menced, and urged keenly until night, when the 
trail entered a running stream and was lost. 
On the following morning the snow had melted, 
and every trace of the enemy was obliterated. 
This affair must be regarded as highly honorable 
to the skill, address, and activity of the Indians ; 
and the self-devotion of the rear-guard is a lively 
instance of that magnanimity of which they are 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 323 

at times capable, and which is more remarkable 
in them, from the extreme caution and tender 
regard for their own lives which usually distin- 
guished their Avarriors. 

From this time Simon Kenton's name became 
very prominent as a leader. This year, at the 
head of forty-six men, he pursued a body of 
Indians, but did not succeed in overtaking them, 
which he afterward regarded as a fortunate cir- 
cumstance, as he ascertained that they were at 
least double the number of his own party. A 
man by the name of Scott, having been carried 
oif by the Indians, Kenton followed them over 
the Ohio, and released him. 

As early as January, 1783, the Indians entered 
Kentucky, two of them were captured near 
Crab Orchard by Captain Whitley. The same 
month, a party stole a number of horses from 
the Elkhorn settlements, they were pursued and 
surprised in their camp. Their leader extricated 
his band, by a singular stratagem. Springing 
up before the whites could fire, he went through 
a series of the most extraordinary antics, leaping 
and yelling as if frantic. This conduct absorb- 



324 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

ing the attention of the whites, his followers 
took advantage of the opportunity to escape. 
As soon as they had all disappeared, the wily 
chief plunged into the woods and was seen no 
more. The attacks were continued in March. 
Several parties and families suffered severely. 
Lieutenant McClure, following the trail of a 
marauding party of Indians, fell in with an- 
other body, and, in the skirmish that ensued, 
was mortally wounded. 

In 1789, a conference was held at the mouth 
of the Muskingum, with most of the north- 
western tribes, the result of which was the con- 
clusion of another treaty. The Shawanese were 
not included in this pacification. This tribe was 
the most constant in its enmity to the whites, of 
all the Western Indians. There was but little 
use in making peace with the Indians unless all 
were included ; for as long as one tribe was at 
war, restless spirits among the others were 
found to take part with them, and the whites, 
on the other hand, were not particular to dis- 
tinguish between hostile and friendly Indians. 

Though the depredations continued this year, 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 325 

no affair of unusual interest occurred; small 
parties of the Indians infested the settlements, 
murdering and plundering the inhabitants. 
They were generally pursued, but mostly with- 
out success. Major McMillan was attacked by 
six or seven Indians, but escaped unhm^t after 
killing two of his assailants. 

A boat upon the Ohio was fired upon, ^ve 
men killed, and a woman made prisoner. In 
their attacks upon boats, the Indians employed 
the stratagem of which the whites had been 
warned by Girty. White men would appear 
upon the shore, begging the crew to rescue 
them from the Indians, who were pursuing 
them. Some of these were renegades, and 
others prisoners compelled to act this part, under 
threats of death in its most dreadful form if 
they refused. 

The warning of Girty is supposed to have 
saved many persons from this ai*tifice ; but too 
often unable to resist the many appeals, emi- 
grants became victims to the finest feelings of 
oui* nature. 

Thus in March, 1790, a boat descending the 



326 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

river was decoyed ashore, and no sooner had it 
reached the bank than it was captured by fifty 
Indians, who killed a man and a woman, and 
made the rest prisoners. An expedition was 
made against the Indians on the Sciota by Gen- 
eral Harmer, of the United States army, and 
General Scott, of the Kentucky militia, but 
nothing of consequence was achieved. In May 
a number of people returning from Divine serv- 
ice, on Bear Grass Creek, were attacked, and one 
man killed, and a woman made prisoner, who 
was afterward tomahawked. Three days after, 
a boat containing six men and several families 
was captured by sixteen Indians without loss. 
The whites were all carried off by the Indians, 
who intended, it is said, to make them slaves ; 
one of the men escaped and brought the news 
to the settlements. 

In the fall Harmer made a second expedition 
which was attended with great disasters. Sev 
eral marauding attacks of the Indians ensued ; 
nor was peace finally restored until after the 
treaty of Greenville, which followed the subjuga- 
tion of the Indians by General Wayne in 1794. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Colonel Boone meets with the loss of all his land in Kentucky, 
and emigrates to Virginia— Resides on the Kanawha, near 
Point Pleasant— Hears of the fertility of Missouri, and the 
abundance of game there— Emigrates to Missouri— Is ap- 
pointed commandant of a district under the Spanish Govern- 
ijjent — Mr. Audubon's narrative of a night passed with 
Boone, and the narratives made by him during the night 
Extraordinary power of his memory. 

A PERIOD of severe adversity for Colonel 
Boone now ensued. His aversion to legal tech- 
nicalities and his ignorance of legal forms were 
partly the cause of defects in the titles to the 
lands which he had long ago acquired, improved, 
and nobly defended. But the whole system of 
land titles in Kentucky at that early period 
was so utterly defective, that hundreds of others 
who were better informed and more careful than 
the old pioneer, lost their lands by litigation and 
the arts and rogueries of land speculators, who 
made it their business to hunt up defects in 

land titles. 
327 



328 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

The Colonel lost all his land — even his beauti- 
ful farm near Boonesborough, which ought to 
have been held sacred by any men possessed of 
a particle of patriotism or honest feeling, was 
taken from him. He consequently left Ken- 
tucky and settled on the Kanawha River in 
Virginia, not far from Point Pleasant. This re- 
moval appears to have taken place in the year 
1790. He remained in this place several years, 
cultivating a farm, raising stock, and at the 
proper seasons indulging in his favorite sport of 
hunting. 

Some hunters who had been pursuing their 
sport on the western shores of the Missouri 
River gave Colonel Boone a very vivid descrip- 
tion of that country, expatiating on the fertility 
of the land, the abundance of game, and the 
great herds of buffalo ranging over the vast ex- 
panse of the prairies. They also described the 
simple manners of the people, the absence of 
la^vyers and lawsuits, and the Arcadian happi- 
ness which was enjoyed by all in the distant 
region, in such glowing terms that Boone re- 
solved to emigrate and settle there, leaving his 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 329 

f ourtli son Jesse in the Kanawha valley, where he 
had married and settled, and who did not follow 
him till several years after.* 

Mr. Peck fixes the period of this emigration 
in 1795, Perkins, in his " Western Annals," places 
it in 1797. His authority is an ai-ticle of 
Thomas J. Hinde in the " American Pioneer," 
who says : " I w^as neighbor to Daniel Boone, the 
first white man that fortified against the Indians 
in Kentucky. In October, 1797, I saw him on 
pack-horses take up his journey for Missouri, 
then Upper Louisiana." 

Mr. Peck says : f " At that period, and for 
several years after, the country of his retreat be- 
longed to the Crown of Spain. His fame had 
reached this remote region before him ; and he 
received of the Lieutenant-Governor, who re- 
sided at St. Louis, " assurance that ample por- 
tions of land should be given to him and his 
family." His first residence was in the Femme 
Osage settlement, in the District of St. Charles, 
about forty-five miles west of St. Louis. Here 
he remained with his son Daniel M. Boone until 

* Peek. t Life of Boone, 



330 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

1804, when lie removed to tlie residence of his 
youngest son, Nathan Boone, with whom he 
continued till about 1810, when he went to re- 
side with his son-in-law, Flanders Callaway. 
A commission from Don Charles D. Delassus, 
Lieutenant-Governor, dated July 11th, 1800, 
appointing him commandant of the Femme 
Osage District, was tendered and accepted. He 
retained this command, which included both 
civil and military duties, and he continued to 
discharge them Avith credit to himself, and to 
the satisfaction of all concerned, until the trans- 
fer of the government to the United States. 
The simple manners of the frontier people of 
Missouri exactly suited the peculiar habits and 
temper of Colonel Boone." 

It was during his residence in Missouri that 
Colonel Boone was visited by the great natu- 
ralist, J. J. Audubon, who passed a night with 
him. In his Ornithological Biography, Mr. 
Audubon gives the following narrative of what 
passed on that occasion : 

" Daniel Boone, or, as he was usually called 
in the Western country. Colonel Boone, happened 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. SU 

to Spend a night with me under the same roof, 
more than twenty years ago.* We had returned 
from a shooting excursion, in the course of which 
his extraordinary skill in the management of the 
rifle had been fully displayed. On retiring to 
the room appropriated to that remarkable in- 
dividual and myself for the night, I felt anxious 
to know more of his exploits and adventures 
than I did, and accordingly took the liberty of 
proposing numerous questions to him. The 
stature and general appearance of this wanderer 
of the Western forests approached the gigantic. 
His chest was broad and prominent ; his mus- 
cular powers displayed themselves in every 
limb ; his countenance gave indication of his 
great courage, enterprise, and perseverance ; and 
when he spoke, the very motion of his lips 
brought the impression that whatever he uttered 
could not be otherwise than strictly true. I 
undressed, whilst he merely took off his hunt- 
ing-shirt, and arranged a few folds of blankets 
on the floor, choosing rather to lie there, as he 
observed, than on the softest bed. When we 

• This would be about the year I8lO. 



332 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

had both disposed of ourselves, each after his 
own fashion, he related to me the following ac- 
count of his powers of memory, which I lay be- 
fore you, kind reader, in his own words, hoping 
that the simplicity of his style may prove inter- 
esting to you. 

" ' I was once,' said he, ^ on a hunting ex- 
pedition on the banks of the Green River, when 
the lower parts of this State (Kentucky) were 
still in the hands of nature, and none but the 
sons of the soil were looked upon as its la^vful 
proprietors. We Virginians had for some time 
been waging a war of intrusion upon them, and 
I, amongst the rest, rambled through the woods 
in pursuit of their race, as I now would follow 
the tracks of any ravenous animal. The Indians 
outwitted me one dark night, and I was as unex- 
pectedly as suddenly made a prisoner by them. 
The trick had been managed with great skill ; 
for no sooner had I extinguished the fire of my 
camp, and laid me down to rest, in full security, 
as I thought, than I felt myself seized by an in- 
distinguishable number of hands, and was im- 
mediately pinioned, as if about to be led to the 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 333 

scaffold for execution. To liave attempted to 
be refractory would have proved useless and 
dangerous to my life ; and I suffered myself to 
be removed from my camp to theirs, a few miles 
distant, without uttering even a word of com- 
plaint. You are aware, I dare say, that to act 
in this manner was the best policy, as you 
understand that by so doing I proved to the 
Indians at once that I was bom and bred as 
fearless of death as any of themselves. 

" ' When we reached the camp, great rejoic- 
ings were exhibited. Two squaws and a few 
papooses appeared particularly delighted at the 
sight of me, and I was assured, by very unequi- 
vocal gestures and words, that, on the morrow, 
the mortal enemy of the Red-skins would cease 
to live. I never opened my lips but was busy 
contriving some scheme which might enable me 
to give the rascals the slip before dawn. The 
women immediately fell a-searching about my 
hunting-shirt for whatever they might think val- 
uable "and, fortunately for me, soon found my 
flask filled with MonongaJiela (that is, reader, 
strong whisky), A terrific grin was exhibited 



334 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

on their murderous countenances, while my heai*t 
throbbed with joy at the anticipation of their 
intoxication. The crew immediately began to 
beat their bellies and sing, as they passed the 
bottle from mouth to mouth. How often did I 
wish the flask ten times its size, and filled with 
aquafortis ! I observed that the squaws drank 
more freely than the warriors, and again my 
spirits were about to be depressed, when the re- 
port of a gun was heard at a distance. The In- 
dians all jumped on their feet. The singing 
and drinking were both brought to a stand, and 
I saw, with inexpressible joy, the men walk off 
to some distance and talk to the squaws. I 
knew that they were consulting about me, and 
I foresaw that in a few moments the warriors 
would go to discover the cause of the gun hav- 
ing been fired so near their camp. I expected 
that the squaws would be left to guard me. 
Well, sir, it was just so. They returned ; the 
men took up their guns, and w^alked away. The 
squaws sat down again, and in less than five 
minutes had my bottle up to their dirty mouths, 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 335 

gurgling down their throats the remains of the 
whisky. 

" ' With what pleasure did I see them becom- 
ing more and more drunk, until the liquor took 
such hold of them that it was quite impossible 
for these women to be of any service. They 
tumbled down, rolled about, and began to snore ; 
when I, having no other chance of freeing my- 
self from the cords that fastened me, rolled over 
and over toward the fire, and, after a short time, 
burned them asunder. I rose on my feet, stretch- 
ed my stiffened sinews, snatched up my rifle, 
and for once in my life spared that of Indians. 
I now recollect how desirous I once or twice felt 
to lay open the skulls of the wretches with my 
tomahawk ; but when I again thought upon 
killing beings unprepared and unable to defend 
themselves, it looked like murder without need, 
and I gave up the idea. 

" ' But, sir, I felt determined to mark the spot, 
and walking to a thrifty ash sapling I cut out 
of it three large chips, and ran off. I soon 
reached the river, soon crossed it, and threw 
myseK deep into the canebrakes, imitating the 



336 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

tracks of an Indian with my feet so that no 
chance might be left for those from whom I had 
escaped to overtake me. 

" ' It is now nearly twenty years since this 
happened, and more than five since I left the 
whites' settlements, which I might probably 
never have visited again had I not been called 
on as a witness in a lawsuit that was pending 
in Kentucky, and which I really believe would 
never have been settled had I not come forward 
and established the beginning of a certain bound- 
ary line. This is the story, sir : 

'' ' Mr. moved from Old Virginia into Ken- 
tucky, and having a large tract granted to him 
in the new State, laid claim to a certain parcel 
of land adjoining Green Eiver, and, as chance 
would have it, took for one of his comers the 
very ash tree on which I had made my mark, 
and finished his survey of some thousands of 
acres, beginning, as it is expressed in the deed, 
" at an ash marked by three distinct notches of 
the tomahawk of a white man." 

" ^ The tree had grown much, and the bai^khad 
covered the marks ; but, somehow or other, Mr, 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 33^7 

— — heard from some one all that I have already 
said to you, and thinking that I might remember 
the spot alluded to in the deed, but which was no 
longer discoverable, wrote for me to come and try 
at least to find the place or the tree. His letter 
mentioned that all my expenses should be paid, 
and not caring much about once more going 

back to Kentucky I started and met Mi*. . 

After some conversation, the affaii' with the In- 
dians came to my recollection. I considered for 
a while, and began to think that after all I could 
find the very spot, as well as the tree, if it was 
yet standing. 

" ^ Mr. and I mounted our horses, and off 

we went to the Green River Bottoms. After 
some difiiculties — for you must be aware, sir, 
that great changes have taken place in those 
woods — I found at last the spot where I had 
crossed the river, and, waiting for the moon to 
rise, made for the course in w^hich I thought 
the ash tree grew. On approaching the place, I 
felt as if the Indians were there still, and as if I 
was still a prisoner among them. Mr. and 

22 



338 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

I camped near what I conceived the spot, and 
waited until the return of day. 

" ' At the rising of the sun I was on foot, and, 
after a good deal of musing, thought that an ash 
tree then in sight must be the very one on which 
I had made my mark. I felt as if there could 
be no doubt of it, and mentioned my thought to 

Mr. . " Well, Colonel Boone," said he, " if 

you think so, I hope it may prove true, but we 
must have some witnesses ; do you stay here 
about and I will go and bring some of the settlers 

whom I know." I agreed. Mr. trotted off, 

and I, to pass the time, rambled about to see if 
a deer w^as still living in the land. But ah ! sir, 
what a wonderful difference thirty years make 
in the country ! Why, at the time when I was 
caught by the Indians, you would not have 
walked out in any dii'ection for more than a 
mile without shooting a buck or a bear. 
There were then thousands of buffaloes on the 
hills in Kentucky ; the land looked as if it never 
would become poor ; and to hunt in those days 
was a pleasure indeed. But when I was left to 
myself on the banks of Green Kiver, I dare say 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 339 

for the last time in my life, a few signs only of 
deer were to be seen, and, as to a deer itself, I 
saw none. 

" ' Mr. returned, accompanied by three 

gentlemen. They looked upon me as if I had 
been Washington himself, and walked to the ash 
tree, which I now called my own, as if in quest 
of a long-lost treasure. I took an ax from 
one of them, and cut a few chips off the bark. 
Still no signs were to be seen. So I cut again 
until I thought it was time to be cautious, and I 
scraped and worked away with my butcher- 
knife until I did come to where my tomahawk 
had left an impression in the wood. We now 
went regularly to work, and scraped at the tree 
with care until three hacks, as plain as any three 

notches ever were, could be seen. Mr. and 

the other gentlemen were astonished, and I must 
allow I was as much surprised as pleased myself. 
I made affidavit of this remarkable occurrence 

in presence of these gentlemen. Mr. gained 

his cause. I left Green River forever, and came 
to where we now are and, sir, I wish you a good- 
night' " " 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Colonel Boone receives a large grant of land from the Spanish 
Government of Upper Louisiana — He subsequently loses it 
by neglecting to secure the formal title — His lawsuits in 
his new home — Character of the people — Sketch of tke his- 
tory of Missouri — Colonel Boone's hunting — He pays his 
debts by the sale of furs — Hunting excursions continued — 
In danger from the Indians — Taken sick in his hunting 
camp — His relatives settled in his neighborhood — Colonel 
Boone applies to Congress to recover his land — The Legis- 
lature of Kentucky supports his claim — Death of Mrs. 
Boone — Results of the application to Congress — He receives 
one-eleventh part of his just claim — He ceases to hunt — 
Occupations of his declining years— Mr. Harding paints his 
portrait. 

In consideration of his official services as 
Syndic, ten thousand arpents* of excellent land 
were given to Colonel Boone by tlie Govern- 
ment. Under the special law, in order to make 
his title good, he should have obtained a con- 
firmation of his grant from the immediate rep- 
resentative of the Crown, then residing in New 

* An arpent of land is eighty -five hundredths of an acre. 
340 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. s^l 

Orleans. But his friend, tlie Commandant at 
St. Louis, undertook to dispense with his res- 
idence on the land which was another condition 
to a sound title, and Boone probably supposed 
that " all would be right " without attending to 
any of the formalities, and neglected to take the 
necessary steps for holding his land securely. 

It is probable that he foresaw that Missouri 
would soon become a part of the United States, 
and expected justice from that quarter. But in 
this he was disappointed, for when that event 
took place, the commissioners of the United 
States appointed to decide on confirmed claims 
felt constrained by their instructions and rejected 
Colonel Boone's claims for want of legal for- 
malities. 

Thus was the noble pioneer a second time de- 
prived of the recompense of his inestimable serv- 
ices by his inattention to the precaution neces- 
sary for securing his rights. This second mis- 
fortune came upon him some time after the 
period of which we are now writing. 

Meantime Colonel Boone found his residence 
in Missouri agreeable, and in every respect con- 



342 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

genial to his habits and tastes. His duties as 
Syndic were light ; and lie was allowed ample 
time for the cultivation of his land, and for oc- 
casional tours of hunting, in which he so greatly- 
delighted. Trapping beaver was another of his 
favorite pursuits, and in this new country he 
found abundance of this as well as other species 
of game. 

A greater part of the people of Missouri were 
emigrants from the United States, pioneers of 
the West, who had already resisted Indian ag- 
gressions, and were welcome by the French and 
Spanish settlers as a clear accession to their 
military strength. 

. A brief notice of the history of this State, 
showing how the different kinds of population 
came there, will be not inappropriate in this 
place. 

Though the French were the first settlers, and 
for a long time the principal inhabitants of 
Missouri, yet a very small portion of her present 
population is of that descent. A fort was built 
by that people as early as 1719, near the site of 
the present capital, called Fort Orleans, and its 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 343 

lead mines worked to some extent the next year. 
St. Genevieve, the oldest town in the State, was 
settled in 1755, and St. Louis in 1764. At the 
treaty of 1763 it was assigned, with all the ter- 
ritory west of the Mississippi, to Spain. " In 
1780, St. Louis was besieged and attacked by 
a body of British troops and Indians, fifteen 
hundred and forty strong." During the siege, 
sixty of the French were killed. The siege was 
raised by Colonel George Rogers Clark, who 
came with five hundred men to the relief of the 
place. At the close of the American Revolution, 
the territory west of the Mississippi remained 
with Spain till it was ceded to France, in 1801. 
In 1803, at the purchase of Louisiana, it came 
into the possession of the United States, and 
formed part of the territory of Louisiana until 
the formation of the State of that name in 1812, 
when the remainder of the territory was named 
Missouri, from which (after a stormy debate in 
Congress as to the admission of slavery) was 
separated the present State of Missouri in 
1721* 

* Lippincott's Gazetteer. 



344 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

The office of Syndic, to whicli Colonel Boone 
had been appointed, is similar to that of justice 
of the peace under our own government : but it 
is more extensive, as combining military with 
civil powers. Its exercise in Colonel Boone's 
district did not by any means occupy the whole 
of his time and attention. On the contrary, he 
found sufficient time for hunting in the winter 
months — the regular hunting season. At first 
he was not very successful in obtaining valuable 
furs but after two or three seasons, he was able 
to secure a sufficient quantity to enable him, by 
the proceeds of their sale, to discharge some out- 
standing debts in Kentucky ; and he made a 
journey thither for that purpose. When he had 
seen each creditor, and paid him all he de- 
manded, he returned home to Missouri, and on 
his arrival he had but half a dollar remaining. 
" To his family," says Mr. Peck, " and a circle of 
friends who had called to see him, he said, 
'Now I am ready and willing to die. I am 
relieved from a burden that has long oppressed 
me. I have paid all my debts, and no 
one will say, when I am gone, "Boone was 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 345 

a dishonest man." I am perfectly willing to 
die."* 

Boone still continued his hunting excursions, 
attended sometimes by some friend : but most 
frequently by a black servant boy. On one of 
these occasions these two had to resist an attack 
of Osage Indians, whom they speedily put to 
flight. At another time, when he was entirely 
alone, a large encampment of Indians made its 
appearance in his neighborhood ; and he was 
compelled to secrete himself for twenty days 
in his camp cooking his food only in the middle 
of the night, so that the smoke of his fire would 
not be seen. At the end of this long period of 
inaction the Indians went off. 

At another time, while in his hunting camp, 
with only a negi'o boy for his attendant, he fell 
sick and lay a long time unable to go out. When 
sufficiently recovered to walk out, he pointed 
out to the boy a place where he wished to be 
buried if he should die in camp, and also gave 

* The owners of the money of which he was robbed on his 
journey to Virginia, as already related, had voluntarily relin- 
quished all claims on him. This was a simple act of justice. 



346 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

the boy very exact directions about his burial, 
and the disposal of his rifle, blankets and 
peltry.* 

Among the relations of Colonel Boone, who 
were settled in his neighborhood, were Daniel 
Morgan Boone, his eldest son then living, who 
had gone out before his father ; Nattra, with his 
wife, who had followed in 1800 ; and Flanders 
Callaway, his son-in-law, who had come out about 
the time that Missouri, then Upper Louisiana, 
became a part of the United States territory.f 

We have already stated that the land granted 
to Colonel Boone, in consideration of his per- 
forming the duties of Syndic, was lost by his 
omission to comply with the legal formalities 
necessary to secure his title. 

In addition to the ten thousand arpents of 
land thus lost, he had been entitled as a citizen 
to one thousand arpents of land according to 
the usage in other cases ; but he appears not to 
have complied with the condition of actual resi- 
dence on this land, and it was lost in conse- 
quence. 

♦ Peck. t Ibid, 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 847 

In 1812, Colonel Boone sent a petition to 
Congress praying for a confirmation of his orig- 
inal claims. In order to give greater weight to 
his application, he presented a memorial to the 
General Assembly of Kentucky, on the thir- 
teenth of January, 1812, soliciting the aid of 
that body in obtaining from Congress the con- 
firmation of his claims. 

The Legislature, by a unanimous vote, passed 
the following preamble and resolutions : 

" The Legislature of Kentucky, taking into 
view the many eminent seivices rendered by 
Col. Boone, in exploring and settling the western 
country, from which great advantages have re- 
sulted, not only to this State, but to his country 
in general ; and that from circumstances over 
which he had no control, he is now reduced to 
poverty, not having, so far as appears, an acre 
of land out of the vast territory he has been 
a great instrument in peopling ; believing, also, 
that it is as unjust as it is impolitic, that useful 
enterprise and eminent services should go unre- 
warded by a government where merit confers 
the only distinction; and having sufficient 



348 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

reason to believe that a grant of ten thousand 
acres of land, which he claims in Upper Louis- 
iana, would have been confirmed by the Spanish 
government, had not said territory passed, by 
cession, into the hands of the general govern- 
ment: wherefore, 

" Resolved, by the General Assembly of the 
Commonwealth of Kentucky, — That our Sena- 
tors in Congress be requested to make use of 
their exertions to procure a grant of land in 
said territory to said Boone, either the ten 
thousand acres to which he appears to have an 
equitable claim, from the grounds set forth to 
this Legislature, by way of confirmation, or to 
such quantity in such place as shall be deemed 
most advisable, by way of donation." 

Notwithstanding this action of the Legislature 
of Kentucky, Colonel Boone's appeal, like many 
other just and reasonable claims presented to 
Congress, was neglected for some time. During 
this period of anxious suspense, Mrs. Boone, the 
faithful and affectionate wife of the venerable 
pioneer, who had shared his toils and anxieties, 
and cheered his home for so many years, was 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 349 

taken from his side. Slie died in March, 1813, 
at the age of seventy-six. The venerable 
pioneer was now to miss her cheerful compan- 
ionship for the remainder of his life ; and to 
a man of his affectionate disposition this must 
have been a severe privation. 

Colonel Boone's memorial to Congress re- 
ceived the earnest and active support of Judge 
Coburn, Joseph Vance, Judge Burnett, and 
other distinguished men belonging to the West- 
ern country. But it was not till the 24th of 
December, 1813, that the Committee on Public 
Lands made a report on the subject. 

The report certainly is a very inconsistent 
one, as it fully admits the justice of his claim to 
eleven thousand arpents of land, and recom- 
mends Congress to give him the miserable pit- 
tance of one thousand arpents, to which he was 
entitled in common with all the other emigrants 
to Upper Louisiana ! The act for the confir- 
mation of the title passed on the 10th of Feb- 
ruary, 1814. 

For ten years before his decease. Colonel 
Boone gave up his favorite pursuit of hunting. 



350 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

The infirmities of age rendered it imprudent for 
him to venture alone in the woods. 

The closing years of Colonel Boone's life were 
passed in a manner entirely characteristic of the 
man. He appears to have considered love to 
mankind, reverence to the Supreme Being, de- 
light in his works and constant usefulness, as 
the legitimate ends of life. After the decease 
of Mrs. Boone, he divided his time among the 
different members of his family, making his 
home with his eldest daughter, Mrs. Callaway, 
\dsiting his other children, and especially his 
youngest son. Major Nathan Boone, for longer 
or shorter periods, according to his inclination 
and convenience. He was greatly beloved by 
all his descendants, some of whom were of the 
fifth generation ; and he took great delight in 
their society. 

"His time at home," says Mr. Peck, "was 
usually occupied in some useful manner. He 
made powder-horns for his grandchildren, 
neighbors, and friends, many of which were 
carved and ornamented with much taste. He 
repaired rifles, and performed various descrip- 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 351 

tions of handicraft with neatness and finish. 
Making powder-horns — repairing rifles — em- 
ployments in pleasing unison with old pursuits, 
and by the associations thus raised in his mind, 
always recalling the pleasures of the chase, the 
stilly whispering hum of the pines, the frag- 
rance of wild flowers, and the deep solitude of 
the primeval forest." 

In the summer of 1820, Chester Harding, who 
of American artists is one of the most celebrated 
for the accuracy of his likenesses, paid a visit to 
Colonel Boone for the purpose of taking his 
portrait. The Colonel was quite feeble, and 
had to be supported by a friend, the Rev. J. E. 
"Welsh, while sitting to the artist.* 

This portrait is the original from which 
most of the engravings of Boone have been 
executed. It represents him in his hunting- 
dress, with his large hunting-knife in his belt. 
The face is very thin and pale, and the hair per- 
fectly white, the eyes of a bright blue color, and 
the expression of the countenance mild and 
pleasing. 

* Peck. Life of Boone. 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 

Last illness, and death of Colonel Boone — His funeral- 
Account of his family — His remains and those of his wife 
removed from Missouri, and reinterred in the new cemetery 
in Frankfort, Kentucky — Character of Colonel Boone. 



In September, 1820, Colonel Boone liad an 
attack of fever, from wHcli he recovered so as 
to make a visit to tiie house of Lis son, Major 
Nathan Boone. Soon after, from an indiscre- 
tion in his diet, he had a relapse ; and after, a 
confinement to the house of only three days, he 
expired on the 26th of September, in the eighty- 
sixth year of his age. 

He was buried in a coffin v^hich he had kept 
ready for several years. His remains were laid 
by the side of those of his deceased wife. The 
great respect and reverence entertained toward 
him, attracted a large concourse from the neigh- 
boring country to the funeral. The Legislature 

of Missouri, then in session, passed a resolution 
352 




The remains of Daniel Boone and his wife were re-interred in the cemetery 
at Frankfort, Kentucky, on August 20th, 1845.— Page 353. Daniel Boone. 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 353 

that the members should wear the badge of 
mourning usual in such cases for twenty days ; 
and an adjournment for one day took place. 

Colonel Boone had five sons and four daugh- 
ters. The two oldest sons, as already related, 
were killed by the Indians. His third, Colonel 
Daniel Morgan Boone, resided in Missouri, and 
died about 1842, past the age of eighty. Jesse 
Boone, the fourth son, settled in Missouri about 
1805, and died at St. Louis a few years after. 
Major Nathan Boone, the youngest child, resided 
for many years in Missouri, and received a com- 
mission in the United States Dragoons. He was 
still living at a recent date. Daniel Boone's 
daughters, Jemima, Susannah, Rebecca, and 
Lavinia, were all married, lived and died in Ken- 
tucky. 

In 1845 the citizens of Frankfort, Kentucky, 

having prepared a rural cemetery, resolved to 

consecrate it by| interring in it the remains of 

Daniel Boone and his wife. The consent of 

the family being obtained the reinteiment took 

place on the 20th of August of that year. 

The pageant was splendid and deeply interest- 
23 



354: LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 

ing. A few survivors of Boone's contemporaries 
were present, gathered from all parts of the 
State, and a numerous train of his descendants 
and relatives led the van of the procession es- 
corting the hearse, which was decorated with 
forest evergreens and white lilies, an appropriate 
tribute to the simple as well as glorious char- 
acter of Boone, and suitable emblem of his en- 
during fame. The address was delivered by Mr. 
Crittenden, and the concourse of citizens from 
Kentucky and the neighboring States was im- 
mense. 

The reader of the foregoing pages will have 
no difficulty in forming a correct estimate of 
Boone's character. He was one of the purest 
and noblest of the pioneers of the West. Ke- 
garding himseK as an instrument in the hands 
of Providence for accomplishing great purposes, 
he was nevertheless always modest and unas- 
suming, never seeking distinction, but always 
accepting the post of duty and danger. 

As a military leader he was remarkable for 
prudence, coolness, braveiy, and imperturbable 
self-possession. His knowledge of the character 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 355 

of the Indians enabled him to divine their in- 
tentions and baffle their best laid plans ; and 
notwithstanding his resistance of their inroads, 
he was ahvays a great favorite amongst them. 
As a father, husband, and citizen his character 
seems to have been faultless ; and his intercourse 
with his fellow-men was always marked by the 
strictest integrity and honor. 



COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGEAPHY. 



[The following pages were dictated by Colonel Boone to John 
Filson, and published in 1784. Colonel Boone has been 
heard to say repeatedly since its publication, that "it is 
every word true."] 



Curiosity is natural to the soul of man, and inter- 
esting objects have a powerful influence on our 
affections. Let these influencing powers actuate, by 
the permission or disposal of Providence, from self- 
ish or social views, yet in time the mysterious will 
of Heaven is unfolded, and we behold our conduct, 
from whatsoever motives excited, operating to an- 
swer the important designs of Heaven. Thus we 
behold Kentucky, lately a howling wilderness, the 
habitation of savages and wild beasts, become a 
fruitful field ; this region, so favorably distinguished 
by nature, now become the habitation of civilization, 
at a period unparalleled in history, in the midst of 
a raging war, and under all the disadvantages of 
emigration to a country so remote from the inhab- 
ited parts of the continent. Here, where the hand 
of violence shed the blood of the innocent ; where 
the horrid yells of savages and the groans of the 

357 



358 COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

distressed sounded in our ears, Tve now hear the 
praises and adorations of our Creator ; where wretch- 
ed wigwams stood, the miserable abodes of sav- 
ages, we behold the foundations of cities laid, that, 
in all probability, will equal the glory of the great- 
est upon earth. And we view Kentucky, situated 
on the fertile banks of the great Ohio, rising from 
obscurity to shine with splendor, equal to any other 
of the stars of the American hemisphere. 

The settling of this region well deserves a place 
in history. Most of the memorable events I have 
myself been exercised in and, for the satisfaction of 
the public, will briefly relate the circumstance of my 
adventures, and scenes of life from my first move- 
ment to this country until this day. 

It was on the first of May, in the year 1769, that 
I resigned my domestic happiness for a time, and 
left my family and peaceable habitation on the Yad- 
kin Hiver, in !N'orth Carolina, to wander through the 
wilderness of America, in quest of the country of 
Kentucky, in company with John Finley, John 
Stewart, Joseph Ilolden, James Monay, and William 
Cool. We proceeded successfully, and after a long 
and fatiguing journey through a mountainous wil- 
derness, in a westward direction. On the 7th of June 
following we found ourselves on Eed Kiver, where 
John Finley had formerly been trading with the In- 
dians, and, from the top of an eminence, saw with 
pleasure the beautiful level of Kentucky. Here let 
me observe that for some time we had experienced 
the most uncomfortable weather, as a prelibation of 



COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 359 

our future sufferings. At this place we encamped, 
and made a shelter to defend us from the inclement 
season, and began to hunt and reconnoiter the coun- 
try. We found everywhere abundance of wild beasts 
of all sorts, through this vast forest. The buffalo 
were more frequent than I have seen cattle in the 
settlements, browsing on the leaves of the cane, or 
cropping the herbage on those extensive plains, fear- 
less, because ignorant of the violence of man. Some- 
times we saw hundreds in a drove, and the numbers 
about the salt springs were amazing. In this forest, 
the habitation of beasts of every kind natural to 
America, we practised hunting Avith great success 
until the 22d day of December following. 

This day John Stewart and I had a pleasing ram- 
ble, but fortune changed the scene in the close of it. 
We had passed through a great forest, on which 
stood mj^riads of trees, some gay with blossoms, and 
others rich with fruits. ISTature was here a series of 
wonders, and a fund of delight. Here she displayed 
her ingenuity and industry in a variety of flowers 
and fruits, beautifully colored, elegantly shaped, and 
charmingly flavored ; and we were diverted with 
innumerable animals presenting themselves perpet- 
ually to our view. In the decline of the day, near 
Kentucky Biver, as we ascended the brow of a small 
hill, a number of Indians rushed out of a thick cane- 
brake upon us, and made us prisoners. The time of 
our sorrow was now arrived, and the scene fully 
opened. The Indians plundered us of what we had, 
and kept us in confinement seven days, treating us 



360 COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

with common savage usage. During this time we 
discovered no uneasiness or desire to escape, which 
made them less suspicious of us ; but in the dead of 
night, as we lay in a thick cane brake by a large fire, 
when sleep had locked up their senses, my situation 
not disposing me for rest, I touched my companion 
and gently awoke him. We improved this favorable 
opportunity and departed, leaving them to take their 
rest, and speedily directed our course toward our 
old camp, but found it plundered, and the company 
dispersed and gone home. About this time my 
brother. Squire Boone, with another adventurer, 
who came to explore the country shortly after us, 
was wandering through the forest, determined to 
find me if possible, and accidentally found our camp. 
Notwithstanding the unfortunate circumstances of 
our company, and our dangerous situation, as sur- 
rounded with hostile savages, our meeting so fortu- 
nately in the wilderness made us reciprocally sen- 
sible of the utmost satisfaction. So much does 
friendship triumph over misfortune, that sorrows 
and sufferings vanish at the meeting not only of real 
friends, but of the most distant acquaintances, and 
substitute happiness in their room. 

Soon after this, my companion in captivity, John 
Stewart, was killed by the savages, and the man 
that came with my brother returned home by him- 
self. We were then in a dangerous, helpless situa- 
tion, exposed daily to perils and death among sav- 
ages and wild beasts — not a white man in the coun- 
try but ourselves. 



COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 361 

Thus situated, many hundred miles from our fam- 
ilies in the howling wilderness, I believe few would 
have equally enjoyed the happiness we experienced. 
I often observed to my brother, " You see now how 
little nature requires to be satisfied. Felicity, the 
companion of content, is rather found in our own 
breasts than in the enjoyment of external things ; 
and I firmly believe it requires but a little philoso- 
phy to make a man happy in whatsoever state he is. 
This consists in a full resignation to the will of Prov- 
idence ; and a resigned soul finds pleasure in a path 
strewed with briers and thorns." 

We continued in a state of indolence, but hunted 
every day, and prepared a little cottage to defend 
us from the winter storms. We remained there un- 
disturbed during the winter, and on the first day of 
May, 1770, my brother returned home to the settle- 
ment by himself, for a new recruit of horses and 
ammunition, leaving me by myself, without bread, 
salt, or sugar, without company of my fellow-crea- 
tures, or evea a horse or dog. I confess I never 
before was under greater necessity of exercising 
philosophy and fortitude. A few days I passed 
uncomfortably. The idea of a beloved wife and 
family, and their anxiety upon the account of my 
absence and exposed situation, made sensible im- 
pressions on my heart. A thousand dreadful ap- 
prehensions presented themselves to my view, and 
had undoubtedly disposed me to melancholy, if 
further indulged. 

One day I undertook a tour through the country, 



362 COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

and the diversity and beauties of nature I met with 
in this charming season expelled every gloomy and 
vexatious thought. Just at the close of day the 
gentle gales retired, and left the place to the dis- 
posal of a profound calm. Not a breeze shook the 
most tremulous leaf. I had gained the summit of a 
commanding ridge, and, looking round with aston- 
ishing delight, beheld the ample plains, the beau- 
teous tracts below. On the other hand, I surveyed 
the famous river Ohio, that rolled in silent dignity, 
marking the western boundary of Kentucky with 
inconceivable grandeur. At a vast distance I beheld 
the mountains lift their venerable brows, and pene- 
trate the clouds. All things were still. I kindled 
a fire near a fountain of sweet water, and feasted on 
the loin of a buck, which a few hours before I had 
killed. The sullen shades of night soon overspread 
the whole hemisphere, and the earth seemed to gasp 
after the hovering moisture. My roving excursion 
this day had fatigued my body, and diverted my 
imagination. I laid me down to sleep, and I awoke 
not until the sun had chased away the night. I con- 
tinued this tour, and in a few days explored a con- 
siderable part of the country, each day equally 
pleased as the first. I returned again to ray old 
camp, which was not disturbed in my absence. I 
did not confine my lodging to it, but often reposed 
in thick canebrakes, to avoid the savages, w^ho, I 
believe, often visited my camp, but, fortunately for 
me, in my absence. In this situation I was con- 
stantly exposed to danger and death. How unhappy 



COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 363 

such a situation for a man tormented with fear, 
which is vain if no danger comes, and if it does, only 
augments the pain ! It was my happiness to be 
destitute of this afflicting passion, with which I had 
the greatest reason to be affected. The prowling 
wolves diverted my nocturnal hours with perpetual 
howlings ; and the various species of animals in this 
vast forest, in the daytime, were continually in my 
view. 

Thus I was surrounded by plenty in the midst of 
want. I was happy in the midst of dangers and in- 
conveniences. In such adversity, it was impossible 
I should be disposed to melancholy. IS'o populous 
city, with all the varieties of commerce and stately 
structures, could afford so much pleasure to my 
mind as the beauties of nature I found here. 

Thus, through an uninterrupted scene of sylvan 
pleasures, I spent the time until the 27th day of 
July following, when my brother, to my great feli- 
city, met me, according to appointment, at our old 
camp. Shortly after, we left this place, not think- 
ing it safe to stay there longer, and proceeded to 
Cumberland Eiver, reconnoitering that part of the 
country until March, ITYl, and giving names to the 
different waters. 

Soon after, I returned home to my family, with a 
determination to bring them as soon as possible to 
live in Kentucky, which I esteemed a second para- 
dise, at the risk of m}^ life and fortune. 

I returned safe to my old habitation, and found 
my family in happy circumstances. I sold my farm 



SQi COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

on the Yadkin, and what goods we could not carry 
with us ; and on the 25th day of September, 1773, 
bade a farewell to our friends, and proceeded on our 
journey to Kentucky, in company with five families 
more, and forty men that joined us in Powell's 
Yalley, which is one hundred and fifty miles from 
the now settled parts of Kentucky. This promising 
beginning was soon overcast with a cloud of ad- 
versity ; for, upon the 10th day of October, the rear 
of our company was attacked by a number of 
Indians, who killed six and wounded one man. Of 
these, my eldest son was one that fell in the action. 
Though we defended ourselves and repulsed the 
enemy, yet this unhappy affair scattered our cattle, 
brought us into extreme difficulty, and so discouraged 
the whole company, that we retreated forty miles, 
to the settlement on Clinch Eiver. We had passed 
over two mountains, viz., Powell's and "VYalden's 
and were approaching Cumberland mountain when 
this adverse fortune overtook us. These mountains 
are in the wilderness, as we pass from the old settle- 
ments in Yirginia to Kentucky, are ranged in a 
southwest and northwest direction, are of a great 
length and breadth, and not far distant from each 
other. Over these, nature hath formed passes that 
are less difficult than might be expected, from a 
view of such huge piles. The aspect of these cliffs 
is so wild and horrid, that it is impossible to behold 
them without terror. The spectator is apt to im- 
agine that nature has formerly suffered some violent 
convulsion, and that there are the dismembered 



COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 365 

remains of the dreadful shock ; the ruins, not of Per- 
sepolis or Palmyra, but of the world ! 

I remained with my family on Clinch until the 
6th of June, 1774, when I and one Michael Stoner 
were solicited by Governor Dunmore of Virginia to 
go to the falls of the Ohio to conduct into the settle- 
ments a number of surveyors that had been sent 
thither by him some months before ; this country 
having about this time drawn the attention of many 
adventurers. "We immediately complied with the Gov- 
ernor's request, and conducted in the surveyors — 
completing a tour of eight hundred miles, through 
many difficulties, in sixty-two days. 

Soon after I returned home, I was ordered to 
take the command of three garrisons during the 
campaign which Governor Dunmore carried on 
against the Shawanese Indians ; after the conclusion 
of which, the militia was discharged from each 
garrison, and I, being relieved from my post, was 
solicited by a number of IN'orth Carolina gentlemen, 
that were about purchasing the lands lying on the 
south side of Kentucky River, from the Cherokee 
Indians, to attend their treaty at Wataga, in March, 
1775, to negotiate with them, and mention the 
boundaries of the purchase. This I accepted ; and, 
at the request of the same gentlemen, undertook to 
mark out a road in the best passage from the settle- 
ment through the wilderness to Kentucky, with such 
assistance as I thought necessary to employ for such 
an important undertaking. 

I soon began this work, having collected a number 



S66 COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

of enterprising men, well armed. We proceeded 
with all possible expedition until we came within 
fifteen miles of where Boonesborough now stands, 
and where we were fired upon by a party of Indians 
that killed two, and wounded two of our number ; 
yet, although surprised and taken at a disadvantage, 
we stood our ground. This was on the 20th of 
March, 1775. Three days after, we were fired upon 
again, and had two men killed, and three wounded. 
Afterw^ard we proceeded on to Kentucky River 
without opposition ; and on the first day of April 
began to erect the fort Boonesborough at a salt 
lick, about sixty yards from the river, on the south 
side. 

On the fourth day, the Indians killed one of our 
men. We were busily employed in building this 
fort until the fourteenth day of June following, 
without any further opposition from the Indians ; 
and having finished the works, I returned to my 
family on Clinch. 

In a short time I proceeded to remove my family 
from Clinch to this garrison, where we arrived safe, 
without any other difficulties than such as are com- 
mon to this passage ; my wife and daughter being 
the first white women that ever stood on the banks 
of Kentucky River. 

On the 24:th day of December following, we had 
one man killed, and one wounded by the Indians, 
who seemed determined to persecute us for erecting 
this fortification. 

On the fourteenth day of July, 1776, two of 



COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 367 

Colonel Calloway's daughters, and one of mine, were 
taken prisoners near the fort. I immediately pur- 
sued the Indians with only eight men, and on the 
16th overtook them, killed two of the party, and 
recovered the girls. The same day on which this 
attempt was made, the Indians divided themselves 
into different parties, and attacked several forts, 
which were shortly before this time erected, doing 
a great deal of mischief. This was extremely dis- 
tressing to the new settlers. The innocent husband- 
man was shot down, while busy in cultivating the 
soil for his family's supply. Most of the cattle 
around the stations were destroyed. They continued 
their hostilities in this manner until the 15th of 
April, 1Y7T, when they attacked Boonesborough 
with a party of above one hundred in number, 
killed one man, and wounded four. Their loss in 
this attack was not certainly known to us. 

On the 4th day of July following, a party of 
about two hundred Indians attacked Boonesborough, 
killed one man and wounded two. They besieged 
us forty-eight hours during which time seven of 
them were killed, and, at last, finding themselves 
not likely to prevail, they raised the siege and de- 
parted. 

The Indians had disposed their warriors in dif- 
ferent parties at this time, and attacked the different 
garrisons, to prevent their assisting each other, and 
did much injury to the distressed inhabitants. 

On the 19th day of this month, Colonel Logan's 
fort was besieged by a party of about two hundred 



368 COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

Indians. During this dreadful siege they did a 
great deal of mischief, distressed the garrison, in 
which were only fifteen men, killed two, and wounded 
one. The enemy's loss was uncertain, from the com- 
mon practise which the Indians have of carrying 
off their dead in time of battle. Colonel Harrod's 
fort was then defended by only sixty-five men, and 
Boonesborough by twenty-two, there being no more 
forts or white men in the country, except at the Falls, 
a considerable distance from these ; and all, taken 
collectively, were but a handful to the numerous 
warriors that were everywhere dispersed through 
the country, intent upon doing all the mischief that 
savage barbarity could invent. Thus we passed 
through a scene of sufferings that exceeds descrip- 
tion. 

On the 25th of this month, a reinforcement of 
forty-five men arrived from IN'orth Carolina, and 
about the 20th of August following, Colonel Bowman 
arrived with one hundred men from Virginia. 'Now 
we began to strengthen ; and hence, for the space 
of six weeks, we had skirmishes with Indians, in 
one quarter or another, almost every day. 

The savages now learned the superiority of the 
Long Knife, as they call the Virginians, by experi- 
ence; being out-generaled in almost every battle. 
Our affairs began to wear a new aspect, and the 
enemy, not daring to venture on open war, practised 
secret mischief at times. 

On the 1st day of January, 1778, I went with a 
party of thirty men to the Blue Licks, on Licking 



COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 369 

Eiver, to make salt for the different garrisons in the 
country. 

On the 7th day of February, as I was hunting to 
procure meat for the company, I met with a party 
of one hundred and two Indians, and two French- 
men, on their march against Boonesborough, that 
place being particularly the object of the enemy. 
They pursued, and took me ; and brought me on 
the 8th day to the Licks, where twenty-seven of my 
party were, three of them having previously returned 
home with the salt. I, knowing it was impossible 
for them to escape, capitulated with the enemy, and, 
at a distance, in their view, gave notice to my men 
of their situation, with orders not to resist, but sur- 
render themselves captives. 

The generous usage the Indians had promised be- 
fore in my capitulation, was afterward fully com- 
plied with, and we proceeded with them as prisoners 
to Old Chillicothe, the principal Indian Town on 
little Miami, where we arrived, after an uncomfort- 
able journey, in very severe weather, on the 18th 
day of February, and received as good treatment as 
prisoners could expect from savages. On the 10th 
day of March following, I and ten of my men were 
conducted by forty Indians to Detroit, where we 
arrived the 30th day, and were treated by Governor 
Hamilton, the British commander at that post, with 
great humanity. 

During our travels, the Indians entertained me 
well, and their affection for me was so great, that they 
utterly refused to leave me there with the others, 
»4 



3Y0 COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

although the Governor offered them one hundred 
pounds sterling for me, on purpose to give me a 
parole to go home. Several English gentlemen there, 
being sensible of my adverse fortune, and touched 
with human sympathy, generously offered a friendly 
supply for my wants, which I refused, with many 
thanks for their kindness — adding, that I never ex- 
pected it would be in my power to recompense such 
unmerited generosity. 

The Indians left my men in captivity with the 
British at Detroit, and on the 10th day of April 
brought me toward Old Chillicothe, where we arrived 
on the 25th day of the same month. This was a 
long and fatiguing march, through an exceedingly 
fertile country, remarkable for fine springs and 
streams of water. At Chillicothe I spent my time 
as comfortably as I could expect ; was adopted, ac- 
cording to their custom, into a family, where I be- 
came a son, and had a great share in the affection 
of my new parents, brothers, sisters, and friends. 
I was exceedingly familiar and friendly with them, 
always appearing as cheerful and satisfied as pos- 
sible, and they put great confidence in me. I often 
went a hunting with them, and frequently gained 
their applause for my activity at our shooting- 
matches. I was careful not to exceed many of them 
in shooting ; for no people are more envious than 
they in this sport. I could observe, in their counte- 
nances and gestures, the greatest expressions of joy 
when they exceeded me ; and, when the reverse 
happened, of envy. The Shawanese king took great 



COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 371 

notice of me, and treated me with profound respect 
and entire friendship, often intrusting me to hunt 
at my liberty. I frequently returned with the spoils 
of the woods, and as often presented some of what 
I had taken to him, expressive of duty to my sover- 
eign. My food and lodging were in common with 
them ; not so good, indeed, as I could desire, but 
necessity makes everything acceptable. 

I now began to meditate an escape, and carefully 
avoided their suspicions, continuing with them at 
Old Chillicothe until the 1st day of June following, 
and then was taken by them to the salt springs on 
Scioto, and kept there making salt ten days. During 
this time I hunted some for them, and found the 
land, for a great extent about this river, to exceed 
the soil of Kentucky, if possible, and remarkably 
well watered. 

When I returned to Chillicothe, alarmed to see 
four hundred and fifty Indians, of their choicest 
warriors, painted and armed in a fearful manner, 
ready to march against Boonesborough, I determined 
to escape the first opportunity. 

On the 16th, before sunrise, I departed in the 
most secret manner, and arrived at Boonesborough 
on the 20th, after a journey of one hundred and sixty 
miles, during which I had but one meal. 

I found our fortress in a bad state of defense ; but 
we proceeded immediately to repair our flanks, 
strengthen our gates and posterns, and form double 
bastions, which we completed in ten days. In this 
time we daily expected the arrival of the Indian 



372 COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

army; and at length, one of my fellow-prisoners, 
escaping from them, arrived, informing us that the 
enemy had, on account of my departure, postponed 
their expedition three weeks. The Indians had 
spies out viewing our movements, and were greatly 
alarmed with our increase in number and fortifica- 
tions. The grand council of the nations were held 
frequently, and with more deliberation than usual. 
They evidently saw the approaching hour when the 
Long Knife would dispossess them of their desirable 
habitations ; and, anxiously concerned for futurity, 
determined utterly to extirpate the whites out of 
Kentucky. We were not intimidated by their move- 
ments, but frequently gave them proofs of our cour- 
age. 

About the first of August, I made an incursion into 
the Indian country with a party of nineteen men, 
in order to surprise a small town up Scioto, called 
Paint Creek Town. "We advanced within four miles 
thereof, when we met a party of thirty Indians on 
their march against Boonesborough, intending to 
join the other from Chillicothe. A smart fight 
ensued between us for some time ; at length the 
savages gave way and fled. We had no loss on our 
side ; the enemy had one killed, and two wounded. 
We took from them three horses, and all their bag- 
gage ; and being informed by two of our number 
that went to their town, that the Indians had entirely 
evacuated it, we proceeded no further, and returned 
with all possible expedition to assist our garrison 
against the other party. We passed by them on the 



C50L0NEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 373 

sixth day, and on the seventh we arrived safe at 
Boonesborongh. 

On the 8th, the Indian army arrived, being four 
hundred and forty-four in number, commanded by 
Captain Duquesne, eleven other Frenchmen, and 
some of their own chiefs, and marched up with- 
in view of our fort, with British and French colors 
flying ; and having sent a summons to me, in his 
Britannic Majesty's name, to surrender the fort, I re- 
quested two days' consideration, which was granted. 

It was now a critical period with us. We were a 
small number in the garrison — a powerful army 
before our walls, whose appearance proclaimed in- 
evitable death, fearfully painted, and marking their 
footsteps with desolation. Death was preferable to 
captivity ; and if taken by storm, we must inevitably 
be devoted to destruction. In this situation we 
concluded to maintain our garrison, if possible. 
We immediately proceeded to collect what we could 
of our horses and other cattle, and bring them 
through the posterns into the fort ; and in the even- 
ing of the 9th, I returned answer that we were de- 
termined to defend our fort while a man was living. 
" Now," said I to their commander, who stood at- 
tentively hearing my sentiments, " we laugh at your 
formidable preparations ; but thank you for giving 
us notice and time to provide for our defense. Your 
efforts will not prevail ; for our gates shall forever 
deny you admittance." Whether this answer affected 
their courage or not I cannot tell ; but contrary to 
our expectations they formed a scheme to deceive us, 



3Y4 COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

declaring it was their orders, from Governor Hamil- 
ton, to take us captives, and not to destroy us ; but 
if nine of us would come out and treat with them, 
they would immediately withdraw their forces from 
our walls, and return home peaceably. This sounded 
grateful in our ears ; and we agreed to the proposal. 

We held the treaty within sixty yards of the 
garrison, on purpose to divert them from a breach 
of honor, as we could not avoid suspicions of the 
savages. In this situation the articles were formally 
agreed to, and signed ; and the Indians told us it 
was customary with them on such occasions for two 
Indians to shake hands with every white man in the 
treaty as an evidence of entire friendship. We 
agreed to this also, but we were soon convinced their 
policy was to take us prisoners. They immediately 
grappled us ; but, although surrounded by hundreds 
of savages, we extricated ourselves from them, and 
escaped all safe into the garrison, except one that 
was wounded, through a heavy fire from their army. 
They immediately attacked us on every side, and a 
constant heavy fire ensued between us, day and 
night, for the space of nine days. 

At this time the enemy began to undermine our 
fort, which was situated sixty yards from Kentucky 
River. They began at the water-mark, and pro- 
ceeded in the bank some distance, which we under- 
stood by their making the water muddy with the 
clay ; and we immediately proceeded to disappoint 
their design, by cutting a trench across their sub- 
terranean passage. The enemy, discovering our 



COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. Z76 

countermine by the clay we threw out of the fort, 
desisted from that stratagem ; and experience now 
fully convincing them that neither their power nor 
policy could effect their purpose, on the 20th day of 
August they raised the siege and departed. 

During this siege, which threatened death in every 
form, we had two men killed, and four wounded, 
besides a number of cattle. We killed of the enemy 
thirty-seven, and wounded a great number. After 
they were gone, we picked up one hundred and 
twenty-five pounds' weight of bullets, besides what 
stuck in the logs of our fort, which certainly is a 
great proof of their industry. Soon after this, I 
went into the settlement, and nothing worthy of a 
place in this account passed in my affairs for some 
time. 

During my absence from Kentucky, Colonel Bow- 
man carried on an expedition against the Shawanese, 
at Old Chillicothe, with one hundred and sixty men, 
in July, 1779. Here they arrived undiscovered, and 
a battle ensued, which lasted until ten o'clock a. m., 
when Colonel Bowman, finding he could not succeed 
at this time, retreated about thirty miles. The In- 
dians, in the meantime, collecting all their forces, 
pursued and overtook him, when a smart fight con- 
tinued near two hours, not to the advantage of Colonel 
Bowman's party. 

Colonel Harrod proposed to mount a number of 
horse, and furiously to rush upon the savages, Avho 
at this time fought with remarkable fury. This des- 
perate step had a happy effect, broke their line of 



3^6 COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

battle, and the savages fled on all sides. In these 
two battles we had nine killed, and one wounded. 
The enemy's loss uncertain, only two scalps being 
taken. 

On the 22d day of June, 1780, a large party of In- 
dians and Canadians, about six hundred in number, 
commanded by Colonel Bird, attacked Kiddie's and 
Martin's stations, at the forks of Licking River, Avith 
six pieces of artillery. They carried this expedition 
so secretly, that the unwary inhabitants did not dis- 
cover them until they fired upon the forts ; and, not 
being prepared to oppose them, were obliged to sur- 
render themselves miserable captives to barbarous 
savages, who immediately after tomahawked one 
man and two women, and loaded all the others with 
heavy baggage, forcing them along toward their 
towns, able and unable to march. Such as were 
weak and faint by the way, they tomahawked. The 
tender women and helpless children fell victims to 
their cruelty. This, and the savage treatment they 
received afterward, is shocking to humanity and too 
barbarous to relate. 

The hostile disposition of the savages and their 
allies caused General Clarke, the commandant at the 
Falls of the Ohio, immediately to begin an expedition 
with his own regiment, and the armed force of the 
country, against Pecaway, the principal town of the 
Shawanese, on a branch of Great Miami, which he 
finished with great success, took seventeen scalps and 
burnt the town to ashes, with the loss of seventeen 
men. 



COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 377 

About this time I returned to Kentucky with my 
family ; and here, to avoid an inquiry into my con- 
duct, the reader being before informed of my bring- 
ing my family to Kentucky, I am under the neces- 
sity of informing him that, during my captivity with 
the Indians, my wife, who despaired of ever seeing 
me again — expecting the Indians had put a period to 
my life, oppressed with the distresses of the country, 
and bereaved of me, her only happiness — had, before 
I returned, transported my family and goods on 
horses through the wilderness, amid a multitude of 
dangers, to her father's house in North Carolina. 

Shortly after the troubles at Boonesborough, I 
went to them, and lived peaceably there until this 
time. The history of my going home, and return- 
ing with my family, forms a series of difficulties, an 
account of which would swell a volume ; and, being 
foreign to my purpose, I shall purposely omit them. 

I settled my family in Boonesborough once more ; 
and shortly after, on the 6th day of October, 1780, 1 
went in company with my brother to the Blue Licks : 
and, on our return home, we were fired upon by a 
party of Indians. They shot him and pursued me, 
by the scent of their dog, three miles ; but I killed 
the dog, and escaped. The winter soon came on, 
and was very severe, which confined the Indians to 
their wigwams. 

The severities of this winter caused great diffi- 
culties in Kentuck3\ The enemy had destroyed 
most of the corn the summer before. This necessary 
article was scarce and dear, and the inhabitants lived 



378 COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

chiefly on the flesh of buffalo. The circumstances of 
many were very lamentable ; however, being a hardy 
race of people, and accustomed to difficulties and ne- 
cessities they were wonderfully supported through 
all their sufferings, until the ensuing autumn, when 
we received abundance from the fertile soil. 

Toward spring we were frequently harassed by 
Indians ; and in May, 1782, a party assaulted Ashton's 
station, killed one man, and took a negro prisoner. 
Captain Ashton, with twenty-five men, pursued and 
overtook the savages, and a smart fight ensued, which 
lasted two hours ; but they, being superior in number, 
obliged Captain Ashton's party to retreat, with the 
loss of eight killed, and four mortally wounded ; their 
brave commander himself being numbered among the 
dead. 

The Indians continued their hostilities ; and, 
about the 10th of August following, two boj^s were 
taken from Major Hoy's station. This party was 
pursued by Captain Holder and seventeen men, 
who were also defeated, with the loss of four men 
killed, and one wounded. Our affairs became more 
and more alarming. Several stations which had 
lately been erected in the country were continually 
infested with savages, stealing their horses and 
killing the men at every opportunity. In a field, 
near Lexington, an Indian shot a man, and run- 
ning to scalp him, was himself shot from the fort, 
and fell dead upon his enemy. 

Every day we experienced recent mischiefs. The 
barbarous savage nations of Shawanese, Cherokees, 



COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 379 

"Wyandots, Tawas, Delawares, and several others 
near Detroit, united in a war against us, and as- 
sembled their choicest warriors at Old Chillicothe, 
to go on the expedition, in order to destroy us, and 
entirely depopulate the country. Their savage 
minds were inflamed to mischief by two abandoned 
men, Captains M'Kee and Girty. These led them 
to execute every diabolical scheme, and on the 15th 
day of August, commanded a party of Indians and 
Canadians, of about five hundred in number, against 
Bryant's station, five miles from Lexington. With- 
out demanding a surrender, they furiously assaulted 
the garrison, which was happily prepared to oppose 
them; and, after they had expended much am- 
munition in vain, and killed the cattle round the 
fort, not being likely to make themselves masters 
of this place, they raised the siege, and departed in 
the morning of the third day after they came, with 
the loss of about thirty killed, and the number of 
wounded uncertain. Of the garrison, four were 
killed, and three wounded. 

On the 18th day. Colonel Todd, Colonel Trigg, 
Major Harland, and myself, speedily collected one 
hundred and sevent3"-six men well armed, and 
pursued the savages. They had marched beyond 
the Blue Licks, to a remarkable bend of the main 
fork of Licking River, about forty-three miles from 
Lexington, where we overtook them on the 19tk 
day. The savages observing us, gave way ; and 
we, being ignorant of their numbers, passed tho 
river. When the enemy saw our proceedings, 



380 COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

having greatly the advantage of us in situation, thej 
formed the line of the battle from one bend of 
Licking to the other, about a mile from the Blue 
Licks. An exceeding fierce battle immediately 
began, for about fifteen minutes, when we being 
overpowered by numbers were obliged to retreat, 
with the lost of sixty-seven men, seven of whom 
were taken prisoners. The brave and much-lamented 
Colonels Todd and Trigg, Major Harland, and my 
second son, w^ere among the dead. We were in- 
formed that the Indians, numbering their dead, 
found they had four killed more than we ; and there- 
fore four of the prisoners they had taken were, by 
general consent, ordered to be killed in a most bar- 
barous manner by the young warriors, in order to 
train them up to cruelty ; and then they proceeded 
to their towns. 

On our retreat we were met b}^ Colonel Logan, 
hastening to join us, with a number of well-armed 
men. This powerful assistance we unfortunately 
wanted in the battle ; for, notwithstanding the 
enemy's superiority of numbers, they acknowledged 
that, if they had received one more fire from us, 
they should undoubtedly have given way. So 
valiantly did our small party fight, that to the 
memory of those who unfortunately fell in the 
battle, enough of honor cannot be paid. Had 
Colonel Logan and his party been with us, it is 
highly probable we should have given the savages a 
total defeat. 

I cannot reflect upon this dreadful scene, but 



COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 381 

sorrow fills my heart. A zeal for the defense of 
their country led these heroes to the scene of action, 
though with a few men to attack a powerful army 
of experienced warriors. When we gave wa}^ they 
pursued us with the utmost eagerness, and in every 
quarter spread destruction. The river was difficult 
to cross, and many were killed in the flight — some 
just entering the river, some in the water, others 
after crossing, in ascending the cliffs. Some escaped 
on horseback, a few on foot ; and, being dispersed 
everywhere in a few hours, brought the melancholy 
news of this unfortunate battle to Lexington. Many 
widows were now made. The reader may guess 
what sorrow filled the hearts of the inhabitants, ex- 
ceeding anything that I am able to describe. Being 
reinforced, we returned to bury the dead and found 
their bodies strewed everywhere, cut and mangled 
in a dreadful manner. This mournful scene ex- 
hibited a horror almost unparalleled : some torn 
and eaten by wild beasts ; those in the river eaten 
by fishes ; all in such a putrefied condition, that no 
one could be distinguished from another. , . , . 

As soon as General Clarke, then at the Falls of the 
Ohio — who was ever our ready friend, and merits 
the love and gratitude of all his countrymen — un- 
derstood the circumstances of this unfortunate ac- 
tion, he ordered an expedition, with all possible 
haste, to pursue the savages, which was so expedi- 
tiously effected that we overtook them within two 
miles of their towns ; and probably might have ob- 
tained a great victory, had not two of their number 



382 COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

met us about two hundred poles before we came up. 
These returned quick as lightning to their camp, with 
the alarming news of a mighty army in view. The 
savages fled in the utmost disorder, evacuated their 
towns, and reluctantly left their territory to our 
mercy. We immediately took possession of Old 
Chillicothe without opposition, being deserted by its 
inhabitants. We continued our pursuit through five 
towns on the Miami Eiver, Old Chillicothe, Pecaway, 
New Chillicothe, Will's Towns, and Chillicothe — 
burnt them all to ashes, entirely destroyed their corn, 
and other fruits, and everywhere spread a scene of 
desolation in the country. In this expedition we took 
seven prisoners and five scalps, with the loss of only 
four men, two of whom were accidentally killed by 
our own army. 

This campaign in some measure damped the spirits 
of the Indians, and made them sensible of our su- 
periority. Their connections were dissolved, their 
armies scattered, and a future invasion put entirely 
out of their power ; yet they continued to practise 
mischief secretly upon the inhabitants, in the ex- 
posed parts of the country. 

In October following, a party made an incursion 
into that district called the Crab Orchard ; and one 
of them, being advanced some distance before the 
others, boldly entered the house of a poor defense- 
less family, in which was only a negro man, a woman, 
and her children, terrified with the apprehensions of 
immediate death. The savage, perceiving their de- 
fenseless condition, without offering violence to the 



COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 383 

family, attempted to capture the negro, who hap- 
pily proved an overmatch for him, threw him on 
the ground, and in the struggle, the mother of the 
children drew an ax from a corner of the cottage, 
and cut his head off, while her little daughter shut 
the door. The savages instantly appeared, and ap- 
plied their tomahawks to the door. An old rusty 
gun- barrel, without a lock, lay in a corner, which 
the mother put through a small crevice, and the sav- 
ages, perceiving it, fled. In the meantime, the alarm 
spread thro'.igh the neighborhood ; the armed men 
collected immediately, and pursued the savages into 
the wilderness. Thus Providence, by the means of 
this negro, saved the whole of the poor family from 
destruction. From that time until the happy return 
of peace between the United States and Great Brit- 
ain, the Indians did us no mischief. Finding the 
great king beyond the water disappointed in his ex- 
pectations, and conscious of the importance of the 
Long Knife, and their own wretchedness, some of 
the nations immediately desired peace ; to which, at 
present [1784], they seem universally disposed, and 
are sending ambassadors to General Clarke, at the 
Falls of the Ohio, with the minutes of their coun- 
cils. 

To conclude, I can now say that I have verified 
the saying of an old Indian who signed Colonel Hen- 
derson's deed. Taking me by the hand, at the de- 
livery thereof — " Brother," said he, " we have given 
you a fine land, but I believe you will have much 
trouble in settling it." My footsteps have often 



384 COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

been marked with blood, and therefore I can truly 
subscribe to its original name. Two darling sons 
and a brother have I lost by savage hands, which 
have also taken from me forty valuable horses, and 
abundance of cattle. Many dark and sleepless nights 
have I been a companion for owls, separated from 
the cheerful society of men, scorched by the summer's 
sun, and pinched by the winter's cold — an instru- 
ment ordained to settle the wilderness. But now 
the scene is changed : peace crowns the sylvan 
shade. 

What thanks, what ardent and ceaseless thanks 
are due to that all-superintending Providence which 
has turned a cruel war into peace, brought order 
out of confusion, made the fierce savages placid, and 
turned away their hostile weapons from our coun- 
try ! May the same Almighty Goodness banish the 
accursed monster, war, from all lands, with her 
hated associates, rapine and insatiable ambition! 
Let peace, descending from her native heaven, bid 
her olives spring amid the joyful nations ; and plenty, 
in league with commerce, scatter blessings from her 
copious hand ! 

This account of my adventures will inform the 
reader of the most remarkable events of this coun- 
try. I now live in peace and safety, enjoying the 
sweets of libert}^, and the bounties of Providence, 
with my once fellow-sufferers, in this delightful 
country, which I have seen purchased with a vast 
expense of -blood and treasure : delighting in the 
prospect of its being, in a short time, one of the 



COLONEL BOONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 385 

most opulent and powerful States on the continent 
of Korth America ; which, with the love and grati- 
tude of ray countrymen, I esteem a suflBcient reward 
for all my toil and dangers. 

DAOTEL BOONE. 
Fayette County, Kentucky. 

THE END. 



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